A collection of essays that chronicles the author's long campaign against the orthodoxies of psychiatry. From ""Medicine to Magic"" to ""Medicine as Social Control,"" this book delves into the history of medicalization, including ""The Discovery of Drug Addiction,"" ""Persecutions for Witchcraft and Drugcraft,"" and ""Food Abuse and Foodaholism.

This collection of impassioned essays, published between 1973 and 2006, chronicles Thomas Szasz's long campaign against the orthodoxies of "pharmacracy," that is, the alliance of medicine and the state. From "Diagnoses Are Not Diseases" to "The Existential Identity Thief," "Fatal Temptation," and "Killing as Therapy," the book delves into the complex evolution of medicalization, concluding with "Pharmacracy: The New Despotism." In practice, society must draw a line between what counts as medical practice and what does not. Where it draws that line goes far in defining the kinds of laws its citizens live under, the kinds of medical care they receive, and the kinds of lives they are allowed to live.