Here's my two cents on Szasz.
I think that Szasz's viewpoints are interesting but more appropriate for
graduate level abnormal and therapy courses where there would be time to
gain understanding. With Szasz, I think it helps to expose students to
films of his work and other materials to fully cover his ideas in depth, it
does his work no justice to just present Szasz as the guy who wrote Myth of
Mental Illness, who doesn't believe in Mental Illness, etc. and move on, it
comes off as too simplistic, and its easy to present him as a crackpot.
There may be room for a brief mention of his position in an upper level
abnormal course, but it would probably compete with all the other material
as was mentioned. However, at the graduate level one can use his argument
to stimulate thought and discussion/debate about whether or not there is
evidence that some types of disorders are over-diagnosed and over-medicated
in certain populations. And whether this has a cultural/historical
significance. One example: ADHD/Ritalin? Of course this is Szasz's
argument, but he's not alone on this one.
I think his work can also be presented in a course on Therapy Approaches, as
he does utilize a humanistic approach to clients with an emphasis on respect
and a willingness to join with the client in genuine way. No matter whether
one believes in his theory about the non-existence of mental illness, his
clinical approach is a decent example of a humanistic, genuine, empathic,
relationship-oriented therapeutic technique. There are some good films that
present this but I can't recall the names. I'm not sure but I suspect you
can access them on his website. I believe its:
http://www.enabling.org/ia/szasz/intro.html, or one of them anyway. It's a
springboard.
Went a bit over, maybe 3 cents.
Haydee Gelpi
Broward Community College
DHHS/FOH Florida
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Ofsowitz [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 9:47 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Abnormal: status of Szasz?
Nancy mentioned Szasz the other day, and it made me wonder just how
well his ideas are covered in psych classes.
I used to talk about his position in intro a little, but it seems
there's hardly time for it, and if I rush through other material at
his expense, students might come out with a biased view (though
Szasz's position is clearly that the mainstream view itself is
horribly biased). In sociology courses I devote more time to the
ideas.
I don't teach abnormal, but what about it? Do you folks cover Szasz
in courses on abnormal? Is it, uh, normal to do so?
I checked a few intro texts (I only have 7 here), and only one -
Weiten - had Szasz listed in the index (and devoted a paragraph to
his critique).
--> Mike O.
--
_______________________________________________
Michael S. Ofsowitz [EMAIL PROTECTED]
University of Maryland - European Division
http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~mofsowit
