“by Szasz’s absurd criteria, Alzheimer’s did not exist back in the 1980s when my grandmother died from it”
No, he doesn’t say that. Until the particular physical pathology was located, it was not a proven disease. This does not rule out weird behavior being strongly related to a putative literal disease, which of course can help with research into the *bodily* malfunction. Furthermore, medical treatment is premised on consent, which psychiatry is not.

“Szasz followers never really seem to have a comeback to the argument that all sorts of real, physical, objective illnesses are diagnosed based on behavior and patient reports rather than direct observation of the physical damage”
What comeback is required? You seem to be confusing diagnosis and disease here. There are four (logically) possible scenarios involving diagnosis and disease - having neither, having one but not the other (either way), and having both. When the same set of possibilities is applied to mental illness, it is obvious not only that there is nothing behind the diagnosis, but that irrespective of medical advances, only the (prescriptive) diagnosis is important for the psychiatric establishment. The issue which those who denounce Szasz so often fail to address is why anyone with a putative disease should be coerced with what is officially called “treatment.”

Sincerely,
Ted.

–uses big-columns set from the movie

–David Gilmour surprise appearance

–Ridley Scott film direction

–Tim Curry of Rocky Horror fame as horned Prince of Darkness

–Tom Cruise unseen despite starring in the film, due to some contractual problem, thus taint of Scientology avoided

To make up for my error (now corrected above), I offer something that looks _even more_ like those childhood dreams, the video, fittingly, for “Is Your Love Strong Enough?” by Bryan Ferry (from the movie _Legend_, which was out a couple decades before Peter Jackson’s LOTR but may have been influenced by Ralph Bakshi’s animated version, Tolkien’s text descriptions, or for that matter the big crazy pillars in St. Peter’s):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=e2m__rbD2IM