Ron Leifer "Behemoth: the Structure and Practice of Psychiatry" PDF

My motive for writing this book is to alert people that psychiatric thought is illogical, deceptive and harmful. The concept of mental illness is seriously flawed. Yet it is used to justify the expenditure of millions of dollars searching for the causes of it in the brain, thus obstructing the development of other paradigms for understanding and relieving human suffering. The concept of mental illness is also used to define what is abnormal and, hence, what is normal behavior. It is a serious error to allow a flawed institution like psychiatry to define the ideals of behavior and the standards of deviance. The flawed concept of mental illness is also used to justify the labelling and drugging of significant numbers of people, including children. More serious is the use of the flawed concept of mental illness to define people and to deprive certain people of freedom by confining them to institutions called mental hospitals, a practice that makes a mockery of our claim that, as a society, we value human freedom and have the obligation to defend freedom around the world.