Word: mentality
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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This is not the first time that Masson, a nonpracticing psychoanalyst, has published a book designed to drive mental-health professionals nuts. His The Assault on Truth (1984) attracted headlines and controversy with the charge that Sigmund Freud had fudged certain of his evidence and thereby left the whole foundation of psychoanalysis teetering. According to Masson, Freud had initially believed his female patients during the 1890s when they told him of being sexually abused, often by fathers or other relatives. But under strong pressure from a male colleague, and knowing how little his fellow Viennese cared to hear...
Sure enough, Masson provides plenty of examples of abusive behavior on the part of psychotherapists, especially those who have access to patients in mental institutions. There is the case of John Rosen, whose "direct analysis" still receives attention in some textbooks even though he surrendered his medical license in 1983 rather than face charges by the Pennsylvania medical board. Rosen's specialty was the rough treatment of schizophrenics to gain their attention. And then there was D. Ewen Cameron (1901-67), a much lauded and honored psychiatrist who, at the behest of the CIA, used repeated electroshock treatments...
...does not work. If ill-treatment of women disappeared, the world would be a happier place; if psychotherapy in all its guises suddenly vanished, some severely deranged and dangerous folks would be walking about the streets. That would be O.K. with Masson, who several times states his opinion that mental institutions should be emptied and that "patients should not be incarcerated." In fact, Masson calls schizophrenia a "specious medical disease" and announces that "there is no such medical entity as mental illness...
...seven acts, that the only rival in the corner of her eye is the memory of her last triumph. Since 1984 she has set the heptathlon world record and bettered it twice; she has shared the world record in the long jump. Regardless of the success and the mental and physical cost of its purchase, the work goes on. No number of records will substitute for an Olympic gold...
...still attached to psychological counseling. After two terrible losses -- first of a brother, then of public office -- it would be understandable if Dukakis felt the need for some professional guidance. Seeking such help might, in fact, be a sign of emotional strength. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, each year 15.5 million American adults visit mental-health-care practitioners; few are invalids...