Unholy Madness: The Church's Surrender to Psychiatry

by Seth Farber

For nearly four decades social critics such as Philip Rieff and Christopher Lasch have bemoaned the "triumph of the therapeutic" in our "culture of narcissism." But whatever their level of uneasiness about the psychologizing of reality, most Christians have made some degree of peace with the reigning power of psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic outlooks.Seth Farber is not one of those Christians. In his estimation psychotherapy has become "a replacement for involvement in the spiritual life of the church," with pastors and other Christian leaders too quickly deferring to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. Unholy Madness is prompted by Farber's passionate insistence that Christianity and psychiatry are nothing less than competing faiths.Farber's radical argument cuts to the root of the mental health system and challenges the church to consider how much it may have constricted its own vision and neglected its unique responsibilities in its accomodation to that system. Taking on giants from Augustine to Freud, wide-ranging and never boring, Unholy Madness is not likely to persuade all its readers. But none will be able to see these issues in the same way again.

Genres: Psychology

Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Dr. Seth Farber is a writer, social critic, dissident psychologist (he received his doctorate in 1984),visionary, activist (in the human rights, Green and anti-war movements -- and a supporter of animal rights) and co-founder of the Network Against Coercive Psychiatry (1988). His newest and most important book was just released in May,The Spiritual Gift of Madness:The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride Movement. (The Foreword is written by internationally renowned writer, feminist and human rights advocate Kate Millett, author of Sexual Politics and The Loony Bin Trip.)Dr Farber has had four books published previously, including a book on Jewish critics of Israel, and numerous essays and articles. A critic of the mental health system, he has been a guest on many television and radio shows. His first book Madness, Heresy and the Rumor of Angels: The Revolt Against the Mental Health System (Open Court, Chicago, 1993) contained a foreword by Thomas Szasz. The publication of his memoir Lunching with Lunatics: Adventures of a Renegade Psychologist has been postponed until the time is propitious.(See excerpts below right.) Dr Farber is also an editor of the pioneering scholarly review The Journal of Mind and Behavior. He can be reached at seth17279@​aol.com
(sethhfarber.com)

Reviews

[Jim Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, albeit biased, presentation of the author's concerns about how the Christian faith appears to have acquiesced to the main stream of psychiatry, which espouses medication over traditional humanistic therapy. Farber builds a convincing case to support his bias, however, and the book is worth reviewing.