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Suicide Prohibition :The Shame of Medicine
Suicide Prohibition :The Shame of Medicine
hardback
Published:
12 October, 2011
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Description
While dying voluntarily is ostensibly legal, suicide attempts and even suicidal thoughts are routinely punished by incarceration in a psychiatric institution. Although many people believe the prevention of suicide is one of the duties the modern state owes its citizens, Szasz argues that suicide is a basic human right and that the lengths to which the medical industry goes to prevent it represent a deprivation of that right.
Drawing on his general theory of the myth of mental illness, Szasz makes a compelling case that the voluntary termination of one’s own life is the result of a decision, not a disease. He presents an in-depth examination and critique of contemporary antisuicide policies, which are based on the notion that voluntary death is a mental health problem, and systematically lays out the dehumanizing consequences of psychiatrizing suicide prevention.
If suicide be deemed a problem, it is not a medical problem. Managing it as if it were a disease, or the result of a disease, will succeed only in debasing medicine and corrupting the law. Pretending to be the pride of medicine, psychiatry is its shame.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780815609902 |
| ISBN10 | 0815609906 |
| Number Of Pages | 148 |
| Item Weight | 340 g |
| Product Dimensions | 140 x 216 x 17 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Syracuse University Press |
| Format | hardback |
Media Reviews
[Thomas Szasz] is the preeminent critic of psychiatry in the world."- Richard Vatz, Towson University;
"Liberty and autonomy have their most able defender in Thomas Szasz."- Sheldon Richman;
"It takes an iconoclast with temerity and acumen to illuminate how unexamined myths and metaphors insidiously determine prevailing norms? norms considered unassailable and sacrosanct by the established medical/legal system."- Jeffrey K. Zeig, Director, The Milton Erickson Foundation
Author's Bio
Thomas Szasz is professor emeritus of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. His books include Law, Liberty, and Psychiatry, The Manufacture of Madness, Ideology and Insanity, Ceremonial Chemistry, The Myth of Psychotherapy, Psychiatry, and The Medicalization of Everyday Life.