Madness on the Couch: Blaming the Victim in the Heyday of Psychoanalysis

Abstract

(create) Discusses psychiatry's efforts to cure mental illness through Freud-inspired "talk therapy" in the 1950's and 60's. The central idea behind the therapy was that illnesses could be deciphered and their symptoms interpreted, much like dreams. This approach led to the widespread belief that the parents of patients of schizophrenia, autism, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) had caused the diseases, through subtle hostility toward the patient. The author describes the controversial treatment methods, examines the methodologies of the prominent psychoanalysts of the day, and profiles families and medical doctors whose diligent research revealed the fatal flaws in the Freudian-inspired diagnoses and brought about the currently observed biological perspective toward diagnosis of mental illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)