There appears to be a new trend starting in publishing when it comes
to books dealing with mental health, psychiatry, or self-help. It
may be more correct to say the pendulum is swinging back from the
extreme of uncritical acceptance of biopsychiatric speculation, to
one of skepticism regarding the value of the so-called helping
professions (psychotherapists, psychiatrists, etc.)

Paradoxically, the difference of opinion between those on the
political left and right is growing more shrill and harsh, to the
point where questions regarding the opponent's sanity are brought up.

A few books now on the shelves:

1. SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless: I
mentioned this book a few weeks ago. Writer Steve Salerno takes to
task both the empowerment and victim wings of the self help
movement for not only encouraging people to be irresponsible, but
reaping obscene profits from it.

2: One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-
Reliance is a typical conservative attack on the victim ethic that
appears to be promoted by members of the helping professions.

Unfortunately, author Sally Satel (a psychiatrist) fails to look at
the damage done by psychiatric coersion. Quite the contrary, Satel
is a big fan of coerced treatment, particularly for drug offenders;
she is the author of _Drug Treatment: The Case for Coercion_
published with the help of the American Enterprise Institute--a
conservative think tank.

3. Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical
Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients: Not to be outdone by
the conservatives, the anti-market left decided to get into the game
and describe the allegedly evil plot of huge drug companies to boost
profits by convincing the rest of us that we are sick and need one
of their wonder drugs.

Apparently, it is OK for therapists and MD wannabees to profit from
the manufacture of madness, but pharmaceutical companies are evil
for doing so. Despite this reservation, I do believe there is merit
to the idea that drug companies are taking advantage of the
confusion people have when it comes to disease, disorder, and just
not feeling well.

I can't help but be amused at the entire situation. Szasz has been
warning the rest of us for 50+ years about medical megalomania, and
its eventual effects.

The problems these authors all describe stem from a single issue:
the failure of the medical profession to strictly limit their area
of expertise to demonstrable malfunction and death of the cells,
tissues, and organs of the human body (including the brain).

Szasz's critics are all over the map. They all agree he is wrong,
but taken in toto, they mutually contradict each other.

Some say disease is more than just demonstrable malfunctions of
cells and organs. They point to conditions such as migraine
headaches, which have no know pathophysiological explanation.
Others (ie. E.F. Torrey), claim that schizophrenia IS cause by
chemical imbalances , (although they are vague as to what a proper
chemical balance is), and that those diagnosed have brain
abnormalities, and that Szasz is being willfully stubborn by
ignoring this evidence.

Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder, etc. are a very strange diseases,
in that research for these conditions, as well as treatments for
them are called neuroscience disorders as opposed to the rather
unambiguous, diseases of the brain.

It is as if these proponents have read a few too many Norman Vincent
Peale books, and hope that by the power of positive thinking alone
will convert misbehavior into a legitimate disease of the brain.
But the fact they use the term neuroscience disorders suggests to
me that, deep down, they aren't convinced. Maybe they are afraid
neurologists will either start to ask too many uncomfortable
questions, or invade their turf.

The tap dancing psychiatrists have done around the entire concept
of disorder and disease suggests to me that deep down, they know
they are being intellectually dishonest.