The Myth of Mental Illness Psychology Assignment Paper (Essay Sample)

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The Myth of Mental Illness
This paper offers an in depth explanation of Szasz’s basic argument in mental illness. He was extremely critical of the use of medical models to shed light in human difficulties and struggles (Szasz, 53). He was against use of system of diagnostic such as the DSM claiming that they falsely imply the existences of actual sickness. For him these efforts were medically breaching morality and struggles that human beings go through. Even though critics have dismissed his medical views we still offer a critical reflection to his work with a radical point of view (Szasz, 53).
1.
Thomas argued that the mental illness is not a disease and by all means it cannot be categorized as one. Thomas argued that psychiatry’s offer misappropriate repudiation of a concept such as illness which he claimed to be relevant to medicine and other psychiatric issues but not on human conduct and other matters of the mind. He went ahead and explained that any entity in life can have a fake version or rather counterfeit. Thomas supported his views with iconoclasm characteristics (Szasz, 53). Expounding on the fact that only physical illness are real but anything to do with the mind is metaphorical sickness or and counterfeit. With his argument the search for any mental medication is poorly justified. He believed that its true that human beings go through difficulties in life but this does doesn’t justify to term difficulties as mental illness but referred to a problem in living.
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Thomas outlays the strength of his argument by explaining how the brain is an organ like any other such as the kidney, liver among others. All these organs can be diseased from what we know from neurology. Thomas claims that the mind is not a bodily organ therefore it’s impossible for it to be diseased expect in a metaphorical sense whereby he gave an example of, ‘joke is sick’. Thomas gave another example which psychiatrist’s term as illness; a good example is agoraphobia which is the fear of going out to the open (Szasz, 53). According to Thomas this is a clear instance of behavior and not diseases. Several examples may be given that follow suit but psychiatrist’s still term them as diseases rather than behavior.
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Arguments outlined by Thomas were termed as week and does not hold water at all simply because treatment to mental illness have worked and patients end up recovering from their menace (Szasz, 53). Even though some of his arguments seemed radical the release of Diagnostic Statistical Manual offers advancement in knowledge that furthers understanding on mental illness and its treatment. It has been noted that there is minimal stigma associated with being diagnosed with a mental illness and through treatment people experience less suffering.
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One of the greatest strength of DSM is the fact that it clearly standardizes diagnostic criteria and categories making mental disorder diagnosis simple and easier than it were before (Eliot, 190). Allows the health practitioner a chance to give diagnosis and offer best possible treatment for the illness diagnosed.
DSM also has valuable data which outlines history of various diseases in consideration of age, gender among other factors (Eliot, 190). DSM exposes health practitioners to a wide range of knowledge which may be very useful in treatment and diagnosis.
A common language is used in the DSM for diagnostic discussion. This ensures that there is a clear criterion for a specific disorder so that psychiatrists would mold up same diagnosis (Eliot, 190). This creates uniformity in diagnosis no matter the clinic that the patient visits.
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RDoC which stand for Research Domain Criteria is a framework of research that offers ways of learning mental illnesses (Richard & Lee, 103). Its gives integrated level of information that makes it easier to understand the dimensions and functions of human problem that leads to abnormality. The p...