Our Threatened Freedom

Is Mental Illness a Myth

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Political Studies

Lesson: 91-169

Genre: Conversation

Track: 091

Dictation Name: Vol. G - Part 13 - Is Mental Illness a Myth

Location/Venue: Unknown

Year: 1980’s – 1990’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] Is mental illness a myth? This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.

A prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas Szasz has for some years upset his fellow practitioners with his studies designed to demonstrate that mental illness is a myth. Much of Dr. Szasz’s evidence is very compelling.

I do not feel confident to comment on the subject authoritatively, but I would like to suggest that perhaps we have gone overboard on calling a variety of things mental sickness.

For example, many public school children today supposedly suffer from a disability known as dyslexia, which creates reading problems. When I went to school, we were all taught phonics, and no one had ever heard of dyslexia. Today in Christian schools, no one has dyslexia. Perhaps it is real, but we are entitled to some skepticism here.

Another example, in 1850, a hundred and thirty some years ago, the Louisiana state medical society discovered and named a new disease, a mental disorder. They named it Drapetomania, drapetes is a Greek word meaning runaway. The medical commission, headed by distinguished physician Dr. Samuel Cartwright, found that this disease was a physical and mental peculiarity of the Negro race. The evidence for the medical commission was obvious and clear cut. A great many Negro slaves were running away. Some of the slave owners from whom they ran away were regarded as fine men, obviously running away had to be an indication of some kind of hereditary and racial sickness. Of course, since the doctors saw nothing wrong with slavery, it did not occur to them that these Negroes were running away from slavery. With equal logic, we can say that a medical degree gives a doctor collection mania, since he has a strong urge to collect on all payments due to him.

Seriously however, we have gone very much astray on this question of mental sickness. We are all too prone to label people we disagree with as mentally sick. Is a man politically on the right, left or center? If so, does that make him a mental case? To be in error is one thing, and to be mentally sick a very different thing. Implicit in such a labeling is an idea that sick people should be hospitalized and confined. People with erroneous ideas have the same freedom as the rest of us, by labeling those we disagree with, mentally sick, we are implying that freedom should be withdrawn from them. We are then saying freedom is something to be rationed to our side only. The implications of such labeling are death to freedom.

This has been R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.