I would agree with Szasz that something is seriously wrong with the mental health profession, psychiatrists in particular. I wouldn't trust any of their organizations at all. I am also not a fan of mental institutions, having been in one, I found the experience to be totally unhelpful and it was sad seeing the other people there, who seemed more imprisoned than helped.
However, even if there were no psychiatrists at all, there would be people (like myself) whose brains do not function correctly and thus mood, behavior, vision, etc. are all effected. The medications, designed to treat chemical (read: physical) abnormalities in the brain produce tangible results. SOMETHING real and physical is going on.
The brain controls everything about you, including what you see, hear and how you interpret experiences. If there is any malfunction, it can effect what you actually see and hear (hallucinations, voices, etc.), and you really believe that you see and hear these things. I have known schizophrenics (most of whom are not violent). These are not people who would be normal if not for the pesky psychiatrists.
I can accept that there is a lot we don't know about the human brain, unfortunately, Stasz seems to think we know enough to say that people like me are not really as diseased as a person with Parkinson's or diabetes.
Do you engage in criminal behavior? Where psychiatry lets us down is in the compromise of the rights of the law-abiding.
The insanity defense and the inability to reform criminals puts the rest of us in peril -- precisely the situation our justice system is supposed to prevent. It was a sad day when pseudo-science took precedence over a citizen's right to live free and unmolested.
I would ask the little "nigger boy", but he's dead because no one executed justice on his purp.