Alternative Views and Critique of theDiagnosis and Treatment for Schizophrenia:Quotes and References

The resources and links listed are available to the public via the Internet and therefore may change without prior notice.

A few quotes:

If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist;If God talks to you, you are a schizophrenic.

Szasz, T. (1973). The Second Sin.
Anchor/Doubleday, Garden City, NY. 1973, p. 113.

Actually, often the only thing “wrong” (as it were) with the so-called schizophrenic is that he speaks in metaphors unacceptable to his audience, in particular to his psychiatrist.. When persons imprisoned in mental hospitals speak of “rape” and “murder”, they use inappropriate figures of speech which signify that they suffer from thought disorders; when psychiatrists call their prisons “hospitals”, their prisoners “patients”, and their “patients'” desire for liberty, “disease,” the psychiatrists are not using figures of speech, but are stating facts.

Szasz, T. (1976). Schizophrenia: The sacred symbol of psychiatry.
New York: Basic Books. p.14

A little girl of seventeen in a mental hospital told me she was terrified because the Atom Bomb was inside her. That is a delusion. The statesmen of the world who boast and threaten that they have Doomsday weapons are far more dangerous, and far more estranged from ‘reality’ than many of the people on whom the label ‘psychotic’ is affixed.

Laing, R.D. 1990b. The Divided Self
London: Penguin Books. p.12)

Schizophrenia, on the other hand, cannot be observed in an autopsy, and the only way it (allegedly) can be diagnosed is through its symptoms. It’s true that brain scans are different for some schizophrenics, but it’s also true that many healthy people have brain scans than look like those of schizophrenics, Schaler noted. Thus, some in his profession have taken to describing insanity or schizophrenia merely as “irrationality.” . . . . . . Thus, at one point Schaler drew a parallel between schizophrenia and religious belief. In one case, a person might claim to hear the voices of aliens through the fillings in his teeth. This person will be forcibly imprisoned at a place “called a mental hospital” (quoting Schaler). In the second case, a person might claim to commune with Jesus, who has entered his heart. This person will be respected as having a “valued religious experience.”. . . And Schaler has a certain point here. If people can be forcibly imprisoned for making crazy, irrational claims, then surely a case could be made for locking away just about the entire population. I am not prepared to say the claim of hearing aliens through one’s dental fillings especially qualifies a person for forcible imprisonment. On the other hand, threatening other people is inherently a crime, whether or not a person is schizophrenic, so that sort of behavior can be dealt with legally.

Dr. Jeffrey Schaler
http://schaler.net/inthenews/freecoloradocom.html

“Thus, taken as a whole, the newer medications have no substantial advantage over the older medication used in this study. An important issue still to be considered is individual differences in patient response to these drugs…

Dunken and Barry
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/sep2005/nimh-19.htm

Alternative Views & Online Resources:

• Dr. Jeffrey Schaler: http://schaler.net
• The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR): http://www.cchr.com
• Dr. Thomas Szasz: http://www.szasz.com/index.html
• R.D. Laing Society: http://laingsociety.org
• PsychRights: Law Project for Psychiatric Rights: http://psychrights.org
• Peter R. Breggin, M.D. Critical view of psychiatric drug: http://www.breggin.com/

References for the Critique of the Diagnosis and Treatment for Schizophrenia

• Laing, R.D. (1960). TheDivided Self. London: Tavistock Publications.
• Laing. R.D. & Esterson, A. (1964). Sanity, Madness & The Family: London: Tavistock Publications.
• Laing, R. D. (1967). The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise. New York: Pantheon.
• Laing, R.D. (1969). The Politics of the Family. Toronto: CBC Publications.
• Laing, R.D. (1976). The Facts of Life. New York: Pantheon.
• Laing, R. D. (1982). The Voice of Experience. New York: Pantheon.
• Laing, R.D. (1985). Wisdom, Madness and Folly: The Making of A Psychiatrist. New York: McGraw Hill.
• Rosenberg, M. (1985). “A symbolic interactionist view of psychosis.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, (25) 289-302.
• Sarbin, T. R. & Mancuso, J. C. (1980). Schizophrenia: Medical diagnosis or moral verdict? New York: Pergamon Press.
• Sarbin, T. R. (1986). “The narrative as a root metaphor for psychology” in Sarbin, T. R. (Ed.), Narrative Psychology. New York: Praeger.
• Sarbin, T. R. (1990). “Toward the obsolescence of the schizophrenia hypothesis.” The Journal of Mind and Behavior, (11) 259-284.
• Sarbin, T. R. (1992) “The social construction of schizophrenia” in Flack, W. F., Miller, D. R. & Weiner, M., (Eds.), What is schizophrenia? New York: Springer-Verlag.
• Sass, L. (1992). Madness and modernism. New York: Basic Books.
• Schaler, J. (2006). “48 Hours Interview with Dr. Jeffrey Schaler, Ph.D..” http://www.cchr.com/Files/14887/48_Hours_Interview_With_Dr_Jeffrey_Schaler_Ph_D.Pdf Retrieved 1-25-07.
• Searles, H. F. (1965). “The Differentiation Between Concrete And Metaphorical Thinking In The Recovering Schizophrenic Patient” in Collected Papers On Schizophrenia And Related Subjects. New York: International Universities Press.
• Searles, H. F. (1975a). “The patient as therapist to his analyst,” in Giovacchini, P. (Ed.), Tactics and techniques in psychoanalytic therapy, Vol. II: Countertransference New York: Jason Aronson.
• Searles, H. F. (1975b). “Countertransference and theoretical model,” in Gunderson, J. G. & Mosher, L. R., (Eds.), Psychotherapy of schizophrenia. New York: Aronson.
• Szasz, T. (1965). The ethics of psychoanalysis. New York: Delta Books.
• Szasz, T. (1976). Schizophrenia: The sacred symbol of psychiatry. New York: Basic Books.
• Szasz, T. (1987). Insanity: The idea and its consequences. New York: Wiley.