PSYCHIATRY The Science of Lies

Author Thomas Szasz has spent a long academic career demonizing the concepts of mental illness, the treatments for it, and the “charlatan” professionals who benefit from such beliefs. He claims that psychoanalysis, with a patient talking to a therapist who pretends to believe it all, results in two people colluding in a mutual charade. Szasz’s unconventional and well-argued views have brought him understandable criticism from recognized psychiatric groups. Narrator Tom Weiner overestimates his listeners’ familiarity with the complex terminology of the field by reading it quickly, albeit accurately. Since Freud wrote in German, some of his words have not been translated. Weiner stumbles on the occasional German, but he shines with British English and French. Weiner's bombastic performance may induce occasional humorous moments. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2010]