Explain the key arguments presented by Thomas Szasz (in the texts Essay

Explain the key arguments presented by Thomas Szasz (in the texts studied on this course) against the current practice of psychiatry. Assess the significant strengths and weaknesses - Essay Examplepsychiatry is against autonomy and individual choice psychiatry is based on false assumptions which cannot be proven and finally, that psychiatry should be a means through which at that place is an attempt to help individuals understand themselves and others in society.One of the most significant arguments made by Szasz against psychiatry is that psychiatrists are successors to priests and other religious figures. This succession came to the highest degree through getting directly involved in the attempt to solve the various problems that seem to be plaguing individuals, especially in the case where it was believed that these individuals needed ghostly intervention (Szasz 1974, p.181). He argues that this is exactly the case with modern psychiatry where practitioners seek to classify th e various problems of living that some individuals in society might gain as mental illnesses. The argument of classification is strength because it creates a mail service where the psychiatrist comes to have incredible control over the lives of his patients and this in such a manner that he is able to determine what he would like to do with them. That psychiatrists have a level of power over their patients comes about through their creation able to recommend that they be confined in mental institutions for a certain period as a means of treating their mental illnesses. It creates a situation where it is extremely difficult for individuals in society to escape the clutches of control because psychiatrists, using medical terms, act as priests did using religious terms, can stock-still impose control over those who have put their faith in them. A weakness of this argument is that it does not attempt to show the origins of the behaviours which can be considered as not being normal w ithin human society. Such behaviours include the mentality of murderers who do not feel remorse for their actions despite the last mentioned being horrific. However, one would agree with Szaszz argument because it is a means of showing the