Against Therapy

Against Therapy
1997 HarperCollins edition
Author	Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Psychotherapy
Published	1988 (Common Courage Press)
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	340
ISBN	1-56751-022-1

Against Therapy: Emotional Tyranny and the Myth of Psychological Healing is a 1988 book by author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, in which Masson argues against the practice of psychotherapy. The work was criticized by reviewers.

Summary

Masson claims that psychotherapy is a form of socially sanctioned abuse.

According to Masson, therapists ask patients to do more than is reasonably possible, they "distort another person's reality" to try to change people in ways that conform to the therapist's concepts and prejudices. Therapists are, in Masson's opinion, inevitably corrupted by power and "abuse of one form or another is built into the very fabric of psychotherapy".

Reception

Time magazine wrote, "Although the author's slash-and-burn style of argument can be entertaining, readers should keep their hands on their wallets. Assertions tend to be sold as established facts."^[1] The New York Times argued that "Masson has failed to put a stake through the heart of therapy - in fact, he's greatly missed the mark."^[2] Psychiatric Times called Against Therapy "a "battle cry" for the abolition of psychotherapy".^[3]

References

↑ Gray, Paul (22 August 1988). "The Shrink Has No Clothes". TIME. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
↑ Collins, Glenn (13 November 1988). "Back alleys of psychodynamics". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
↑ Lothane, Z (1 December 1996). "Psychoanalytic Method and the Mischief of Freud-Bashers". Psychiatric Times 13 (12).

External links

Against Therapy Author's site
Against Therapy World Library Catalog

Anti-psychiatry

Topics	Antipsychiatry Antipsychology Biopsychiatry controversy Controversy surrounding psychiatry Critical psychiatry Hearing Voices Movement History of mental disorders Involuntary commitment Involuntary treatment Martha Mitchell effect Medical ethics Medicalization medical model Outline of the psychiatric survivors movement Political abuse of psychiatry Psychiatric survivors movement Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Psychoanalytic theory Recovery model Rhetoric of therapy Rosenhan experiment Self-help groups for mental health Therapeutic community

Organizations	American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization Aspies For Freedom Autism Network International Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law Citizens Commission on Human Rights Hearing Voices Network Icarus Project International Disability Alliance Learning Disability Coalition Mad Pride Mental Disability Rights International MindFreedom International National Empowerment Center Radical Psychology Network Rehabilitation International Royal Association for Disability Rights Survivors Poetry Paranoia Network Soteria World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry

People	Linda Andre Giorgio Antonucci Franco Basaglia Fred Baughman Ernest Becker Clifford Whittingham Beers Lauretta Bender Richard Bentall Peter Breggin Paula Caplan Ted Chabasinski Judi Chamberlin David Cooper Lyn Duff Michel Foucault Leonard Roy Frank Erving Goffman James Gottstein Jacques Lacan R. D. Laing Peter Lehmann Kate Millett Loren Mosher David Oaks Elizabeth Packard Sascha Scatter David Smail Thomas Szasz Stephen Ticktin Robert Whitaker

Publications	Against Therapy Anatomy of an Epidemic Anti-Oedipus Asylums Crazy Therapies Doctoring the Mind Interpretation of Schizophrenia Liberation by Oppression Mad in America Madness and Civilization Radical Psychology The Gene Illusion The Myth of Mental Illness The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise The Protest Psychosis The Radical Therapist We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy – And the World's Getting Worse

Psychiatry portal

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, May 01, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.