---The issue of whether it should be used to excuse a person whe has committed a crime or to confine an individual against his/her will is a separate issue, which is not nearly as clear cut in my mind.---
Exactly! Those of us who have had it in our family know it's real, but at the same time, very few of us are so far gone we don't know what we're doing is right or wrong.
Legal insanity and mental illnesses are two different critters.
Absolutely. Psychiatric diagnoses were not invented in courtrooms, and the idea of legal insanity almost never comes up in the treatment of mental illness. Insanity is a definition of law, not of medicine.
This issue is only going to grow. We are discovering the chemical and genetic causes for psychiatric disorders, and I am sure that one day we will find genetic markers for behaviors and personality traits as well. Which will bring us to the issue of free will. We already know that men with an extra Y chromosome are more likely to be incarcerated. But what if you have the "anger" gene? Should you get get a shorter prison sentence (or a longer one)? And should you be allowed to collect welfare just because you have the "lazy" gene? This may sound ridiculous, but it is coming.
No matter what our genetic makeup or upbringing, we are all capable of free will. I have seen schizophrenics expend enormous willpower to successfully control their disease. But they're the exception. And they decompensate when life hits some bumps. However, they're still responsible for their actions, like all of us who are working with the brain wiring that we have been given.
He cites an estimate from his own book? Based on what? Poor reporting, once again.
If Szazs is so anti-psychiatry, why does he still claim the title of psychiatrist?
Mental illness is a real thing. Our primitive measuring tools are still in their infancy. Why jump the gun and claim something doesn't exist when we may be in the beginning stages of the science? Some of his points are reasonable, but I find his overall stance to be wrong.