ABSTRACT
Thomas Szasz’s contribution to existential psychotherapy comes out of his work as a psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry in New York. His approach is a socio-political one and he vigorously denies that there is such a thing as mental illness (Szasz 1961). He calls the idea of mental illness a myth and he considers the difficulties people come to psychiatrists and psychotherapists with to be problems in living. The illness model is not suitable for this field, Szasz argues, as we are not dealing with anything that affects the body, but rather with something that affects the mind and the way in which a person lives. Of course, if a person suffers from a neurological defect, this is quite a different matter and such a person can be treated medically. Also, if a person is a danger to others then such a person should be dealt with by the law in exactly the same way as anyone else. All other people who need psychotherapeutic help do so because they have personal, relational or moral problems in living.
