Preface
Thought: Self-Conversation
Responsibility: Self-Blame and Self-Praise
Memory: Fabricating the Past and the Future
Brain: The Abuse of Neuroscience
Mind: The History of an Idea
Mental Illness and Mental Treatment: Modernity's Master
Metaphors
Epilogue: The Person as Moral Agent
References
Bibliography
Name Index
Subject Index
In this brilliantly original and highly accessible work, Szasz demonstrates the futility of analyzing the mind as a collection of brain functions. Instead of trying to unravel the riddle of a mythical entity called the mind, Szasz puts forth that our task should be to understand and judge persons as moral agents, not as victims of brain chemistry.
THOMAS SZASZ, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York, is the author of 23 books, among them the classic, The Myth of Mental Illness (1961), and Our Right To Drugs (Praeger, 1991).
"Within the broad church of anti-psychiatry, Thomas Szasz has been
foremost in challenging a narrowly biological conception of human
nature. Provocative, thoughtful, and highly readable, The Meaning
of Mind extends his arguments to the bleak reductionism implicit in
modern neuroscience. This is a timely stand against what C.S. Lewis
called the 'abolition of man.' Thomas Szasz is a true Socratic
gadfly of our modern Athens."-K.W.M. Fulford Professor of
Philosophy and Mental Health Universities of Oxford and Warwick
.,."this crisply written and hard-hitting book not only scans but
exposes the shortcomings of much scientific discourse about mind,
brains and responsibility."-Network
?...this crisply written and hard-hitting book not only scans but
exposes the shortcomings of much scientific discourse about mind,
brains and responsibility.?-Network
?As in his earlier work, Szasz here excels in revealing the
inherent inconsistencies and contradiction in the socio-medical
practice of classifying some individuals as insane. His insistence
that philosophers and psychiatrists ignore the whole person in
discussions of moral responsibility and insanity at their peril
should be heeded.?-Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, #2,
Vol38
?Szasz here addresses the concept of mind with his customary
fervor. Clear, provocative, and based on broad reading and
experience...the argument...concludes with the assertion of 'the
conceptual primacy of the person as moral agent.' Szasz upholds
this primacy against its reduction to the mind by psychiatry, to
the soul by religion, or to the body by neuroscience....Recommended
for academic libraries.?-Library Journal
?Szasz is an original thinker whose theories, though open to
challenge, are daring and profound. His new book should appeal not
only to those interested in mental illness but to anyone caught up
in the ongoing debate about the origin and nature of mind.?-
Publishers Weekly
..."this crisply written and hard-hitting book not only scans but
exposes the shortcomings of much scientific discourse about mind,
brains and responsibility."-Network
"As in his earlier work, Szasz here excels in revealing the
inherent inconsistencies and contradiction in the socio-medical
practice of classifying some individuals as insane. His insistence
that philosophers and psychiatrists ignore the whole person in
discussions of moral responsibility and insanity at their peril
should be heeded."-Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, #2,
Vol38
"Szasz is an original thinker whose theories, though open to
challenge, are daring and profound. His new book should appeal not
only to those interested in mental illness but to anyone caught up
in the ongoing debate about the origin and nature of mind."-
Publishers Weekly
"Szasz here addresses the concept of mind with his customary
fervor. Clear, provocative, and based on broad reading and
experience...the argument...concludes with the assertion of 'the
conceptual primacy of the person as moral agent.' Szasz upholds
this primacy against its reduction to the mind by psychiatry, to
the soul by religion, or to the body by neuroscience....Recommended
for academic libraries."-Library Journal
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