Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks at examples of influential anti-psychiatry texts, such as those of Szasz, Laing and Goffman. It examines the language of and the views conveyed in videos and other sources from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights/Church of Scientology. The book considers the ideas of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, who sought to relate understandings of psychosis to linguistics and other sources. It focuses on the ideas of Giles Deleuze in partnership with psychoanalyst Felix Guattari and their notion of 'schizoanalysis', which is seen less as a clinical concept and more as a social critique. In fact, the more commonly used psychiatric expression is 'anti-social personality disorder'. Historical changes as reflected in shifts in terminology illuminate the development of understandings of mental disorder, including psychosis and schizophrenia.