Not so long ago the author of a successful college text wrote to this reviewer: “Today in the U.S. the textbook writer is always reminded of Leo Strauss’ Persecution and the Art of Writing; much of what I really think needs saying must be put between the lines. My academic discipline exerts as rigid a thought control as the inquisition.” We can measure the courage of Dr. Thomas S. Szasz by the fact that he has left very little, if anything, between the lines in The Myth of Mental Illness. His thesis is presented in clear print and abundantly documented. He opens by saying:
“I became interested in writing this book approximately ten years ago when, having become established as a psychiatrist, I became increasingly impressed by the vague, capricious, and generally unsatisfactory character of the widely used concept of mental illness… it made no rational sense. Although mental illness might have been a useful concept in the nineteenth century, today it is scientifically worthless and socially harmful…. In psychiatric circles it is almost indelicate to ask: ‘What is mental illness?’ “
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