Psychiatry and Socialism (1998)
PSYCHIATRY AND SOCIALISM (1998) Today there are divisions in the working class movement on psychology and the natural sciences. Some allow psychiatrists to join the workers movement on the basis that they are medical workers. In the 1860's Marx encountered the first attempts to link psychology and the natural sciences. He described this link as ' amorphous' and wrong. In the 1920's Bleuler, an Austrian, linked schizophrenia to an imbalance in the brain's chemicals. Since then scientists have pursued the Holy Grail of the chemical imbalance. The origin of Bleuler's prognosis was dementia praecox, a disease of the brain linked with the third stage of syphilis. Bleuler invented the category of schizophrenia, giving it the Greek title of split consciousness' The cult of psychiatry and its 'sacred symbol' (Szasz), schizophrenia, has laid claim to be a science. There is no proven chemical imbalance in the brain and we must look to social ...