HLTHAGE 2G03 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-5: Thomas Szasz, Intellectual Disability, Madness
15 Mar 2018
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Psychiatry began with relatives of a troubled person seeking relief from the suffering that that the troubled person put the, through. Many adults don(cid:1685)t like being around children: kind of the same for having to care for an insane adult; someone selfish, self- absorbed, demanding, impatient, unhappy etc. Difference: child has no political or physical power over help (servant or aid, even doctor or nurse, adults have to be divested of their rights to be treated as a madman. First order: establish insanity as a genuine disease (not malingering) Second order: distinguish insanity from other diseases and assign it the characteristic of having the power to deprive patient of higher mental capacities, as a child. Thus justifying controlling and caring for patients against their will. The idea of insanity as a condition requiring a mad-house was invented by those who needed it, the members of the dominant 17th century english society.
