'The Myth Of Mental Illness': Article Analysis

The articles The Myth of Mental Illness and Road Rage: Recognizing a Psychological Disorder addressed the issue of mental illness in two completely different contexts. Both authors agreed that societal context plays a large role in classifying what is “mental illness”. In The Myth of Mental Illness, Thomas S. Szasz was critical and sceptical of the definition of mental illness. Mental illness was defined as a deviation in behaviour from psychological, ethical or legal norms. He then proceeded to ask the reader, “Who defines the norms and hence the deviation?” He claimed that it is the society that decides what is considered as the norm, implying the significance of society in the classification of mental illness. In Road Rage: Recognizing a

In The Myth of Mental Illness, Thomas S. Szasz argued that mental illness does not exist. He claimed that mental illness is not a literal “thing” and it is only a metaphor for human problems in their daily lives. Therefore, he believed that mental illness is just a myth. However, Szasz claimed that the definition of mental illness should be changed. He believed that we should look into mental illness from a different perspective. Rather than looking at it as an illness, Szasc believed that these deviations should be considered as human being’s struggles in living their lives and disharmonies in social settings. In Road Rage: Recognizing a Psychological Disorder, Alexander Ayar argued that Road Rage should be included as a diagnosis in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Ayar believed that Road Rage should be considered as mental illness because it is not a behavioural choice. Instead, road rage is the uncontrollable desire to unleash the overpowering rage and aggression onto another driver. These two articles are contradictory as one is denying the concept of “mental illness”, while one is trying to classify Road Rage as a type of mental