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Thomas Szasz was a psychiatrist with great intellectual sagacity, consistent and unwavering with his concept of mental illness. He famously argues that mental illness is a myth. If Szasz's arguments are prima facie propositions and mental health interventions are considered myth-making endeavors, psychopharmacological engagement during treatment might be the most unjustified coercion of this generation. For Szasz, mental disorders are in the realm of psycho-social-ethical-legal. He views the existing treatment model of mental illness as an ideological validation of coercion. This tension in his findings stems from two angles, the exclusion of bodily illness dynamics that is currently unknown and extreme activities that are not considered illnesses. Call this the value-ladenness of the mental disorder proposition.
I maintain that this proposition fails to show the polythetic nature of mental disorders. Specifically, I aver that the value-ladenness proposition on which his theory is predicated requires that we deny the emergent anatomical-physiological factual norms that plausibly can exist, namely knowledge of brain structures and functions in neuroscience. I claim that such knowledge can emerge. Howbeit, Szasz's framework is partially valid when he admits the psychosocial features of mental disorders due to the value-ladenness of mental disorders. I will consolidate this partial validity with a position accordant with realist philosophy drawing from Foucault, Fulford, and Kendell solidified by the evidence of cognitive-affective science within the domain of contemporary ampliative understanding of mental conditions to answer the questions raised by Szasz's proposition.

Psychiatric sociol is discussed. Among psychiatrists & sociol'ts 3 diff positions exist: (1) those who deny the organic basis of functional mental disorders & interpret them solely in sociol'al & psychol'al terms (T. Szasz, E. Becker, & T. Scheff); (2) those who accept partially the sociol'al explanations for specific mental illnesses, but do not go so far as to say that existing psychotherapy would be of no benefit in treatment (H. Warren Dunham); & (3) those who feel that some 'unusual' soc situation (eg, a traumatic experience) disrupts body functioning to an unusual extent over a long period of time, & that the change in body functioning upsets the chemical balance within which the nervous system operates so that there are behavioral abnormalities. It is stated that sci may at a later point discover that what are now thought of as functional disorders may have a partially organic basis. It is equally possible that what are now thought of as organic mental disorders will be found to have a partially sociogenic or psychogenic origin. Some important discoveries to this effect have already been made. However, there are many aspects of psychiatric sociol that do not challenge the current organic or psychol'al interpretation of mental disorder. For each of these, various individual studies are discussed: (A) the `ecological' studies by R. E. Park & Ernest W. Burgess & their students at the U of Chicago in the 1920's; (B) the relation between SC & the incidence of schizophrenia as studied by A. Hollingshead & F. C. Redlich, SOCIAL CLASS AND MENTAL ILLNESS (see SA 6992); (C) the book PSYCHOSIS AND CIVILIZATION, by Herbert Goldhamer & Andrew Marshall, Glencoe, Ill: the Free Press, 1953; (D) the study of role relations in mental hosp's, in particular Alfred H. Stanton & Morris S. Schwartz, THE MENTAL HOSPITAL: A STUDY OF INSTITUTIONAL PARTICIPATION IN PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS AND TREATMENT, New York, NY: Basic Books, 1954; (E) the relationship of fan, members to the mental patients & their influence on the latter's mental state, as studied by a group of sociol'ts at the Nat'l Instit of Niental Health (see SA 3814, 3852, 3853, 3854, 3860, & 3861); (F) sample surveys of PO toward mental health, eg, John C. Nunally, POPULAR CONCEPTIONS OF MENTAL ILLNESS: THEIR DE- VELOPMENT AND CHANGE, New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961; (G) educ'al efforts such as CLOSED RANKS: AN EXPERIMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION, by John & Elaine Cumming, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard U Press, 1957; & (H) the study of stress by Arnold M. Rose ('Mental Health Attitudes of Youth as Influenced by a Comic Strip,' see SA A0799). It is noted that sub-disciplines are developing rapidly for a variety of reasons. In the US, most of the psychiatric sociol'ts are members of the Society for the Study of Soc Problems, which publishes Social Problems. A theoretical gap between psychiatrists, psychol'ts & sociol'ts is noted. M. Maxfield.

Mental disorders and their care present unusual problems within biomedical ethics. The disorders themselves invite an ethical critique, as does society's attitude to them; researching the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders also presents special ethical issues. The current high profile of mental disorder ethics, emphasised by recent political and legal developments, makes this a field of research that is not only important but also highly topical. For these reasons, the Wellcome Trust's biomedical ethics programme convened a meeting, "Investigating Ethics and Mental Disorders", in order to review some current research, and to stimulate topics and methods of future research in the field. The meeting was attended by policy makers, regulators, research funders, and researchers, including social scientists, psychiatrists, psychologists, lawyers, philosophers, criminologists, and others. As well as aiming to inspire a stronger research endeavour, the meeting also sought to stimulate an improved understanding of the methods and interactions that can contribute to "empirical ethics" generally.

ABSTRACTIn this article the premises on which Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 have been evaluated traditionally will be outlined and assessed using data from a recent empirical study. In examining the nature of police action in implementing this provision it is shown that police discretion and ability to act autonomously is constrained by the social context within which officers become involved in incidents and the external influences impinging on police decision making. It is suggested that legalism is inadequate both in accounting for the social realities of policing and relevant social policy implications. Instead, a social constructivist approach capable of accounting for wider influences on police action and mental health policy more generally is advocated as the basis on which to evaluate the future use of the provision.