Madness and Modernism

[ben...@vax.sonoma.edu]

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has read and has opinions of the
book _Madness and Modernism_ by Louis Sass. This book proposes the theory that
schizophrenia bears a significant resemblance to certain aspects of a cultural
phenomenon which the author identifies as "modernism" though he admits some
difficulty in specifying exactly what this is.

The most problematic proposition in the book is the author's disdain for
current theories of biological bases of schizophrenia and other brain
disorders. He relegates his main attack on these to an appendix, perhaps to
de-emphasize the extent to which his ideas differ from the current dominant
thinking in his field.

Still, there is a lot of information here, and many provocative notions.

Regards,
G.O. Benton
Santa Rosa, CA.