How to Become a Schizophrenic: The Case Against Biological Psychiatry

By John Modrow

"...demonstrates the physical, psychological, and social harm resulting from the label schizophrenic and the continuous need to reexamine the underpinnings and attitudes of psychiatry."
-Booklist

"Of all the books written about schizophrenia...none is more comprehensive, accurate, thorough, and clearer in style and statement than John Modrow's classic How to Become a Schizophrenic. Modrow, who is a recovered schizophrenic and is, perhaps, the unrecognized and unappreciated world's foremost authority on this disorder, has performed a truly invaluable service and has made the major contribution to our understanding of the causes and cures of this pseudodisease."

-Robert A Baker, Ph.D., former chairman of the Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky; author of They Call It Hypnosis, Hidden Memories: Voices and Visions from Within and Mind Games: Are We Obsessed with Therapy?

"One of the best things I've read on the subject...I am struck by the richness of the ideas and the research and the soundness of the conclusions."

-Peter Breggin, M.D., founder and director of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology; author of Toxic Psychiatry and Talking Back to Prozac

"...a very important contribution to the field."

-Theodore Lidz, M.D., former chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University; author of The Origin and Treatment of Schizophrenic Disorders and Schizophrenia and the Family

"...well researched and easily readable (a difficult combination to achieve)!"

-Judi Chamberlin, author of On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System

"...meticulously challenges all the major research that claims that schizophrenia is a biological disorder."

-Ty C. Colbert, Ph.D., author of Broken Brains or Wounded Hearts: What Causes Mental Illness

"Before reading the book, I was largely convinced that schizophrenia was primarily a brain disease. Modrow has forced me to take a second look, however, and reconsider the psychological causes of the condition."

-The Vancouver Sun

"...it is ennobling that despite bad and discouraging treatment he was able to understand himself and others, and share that acquired knowledge in an accurate and helpful way."

-Bertram P. Karon, PhD., professor of clinical psychology, Michigan State University; author of Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia

"...gives clear proof that there's real hope. Truly a remarkable book!"

-Alan Caruba, Bookviews

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595242995
• ISBN13: 9780595242993
• Release Date: August 1970
• Publisher: iUniverse, Incorporated
• Length: 436 Pages
• Weight: 1.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Ups! Sorry! It IS BACK in print!

Since HOW TO BECOME A SCHIZOPHRENIC was out of print for five years, and since the author told me by mail he was pessimistic about bringing it back to print, I wrote the previous review under the impression that the book was not available in 2003. Sorry!I can only add to my previous review that Alice Miller is the leading exponent in the subject of how abusive parents can drive their children mad. Any critique of biopsychiatry should be complemented with what could be called the trauma model of mental disorders. And Miller and Modrow have done a stupendous job on this revolutionary model.

A shame this book is not in print!

John Modrow has written the best book describing how parents can drive a son mad. The pseudo-science of biological psychiatry has deceived us. The medical departments in the universities are telling lies to the medical students (everything that has to do with psychopathology). Mental disorders are not a hardware problem, so to speak, and should not be studied by physicians. Only intuitive psychologists like Alice Miller, and vindictive autobiographers like John Modrow, can understand this software problem of the human psyche.Self-taught Modrow says the same neuroscientist Elliot Valenstein has said in BLAMING THE BRAIN, and psychiatrist Colin Ross and psychologist Alvin Pam in PSEUDOSCIENCE IN BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. However, Modrow is also a survivor of both parental and psychiatric abuse. He knows what it feels to have undergone a brief psycho breakdown due to the horrendous abuse. In this sense his book is more valuable than THE DIVIDED SELF by Ronald Laing, an antipsychiatrist who tried to study the minds of these victims from the outside. Unlike Laing et al, Modrow self-analyzes himself. He has insider information on what is madness.In his book MIND GAMES Robert Baker, an emeritus professor of psychology in Kentucky, says that Modrow is perhaps the highest authority in madness and why some people become (temporarily) mad.It is an absolute shame that such a book is not in print and that the mental health establishment paid no attention to it. No doubt that the false science of biopsychiatry has cast a spell on civil society!

Justifiable Anger

This book is written by a man who had been diagnosed with and treated for schizophrenia. He experienced first hand the maze of interventions, the pressure to conform to treatment (or rather be compliant), and the dehumanizing effects of both the so-called mental illness and the system that addressed its treatment.Modrow takes a detailed look at the evidence for the proposed causes of schizophrenia and delineates the weaknesses of the popularly accepted premise that it is a genetic, biologically caused disease. In particular, he aims a discerning eye on the details of the Twin and Adoption studies in which so much faith has been placed in proving the medical model. He looks at the findings of brain chemistry studies and medication effectiveness, finding the results wanting. Modrow also examines the economic factors that exert such a large influence on treatments.The tone of the book at times is incensed, understandably so. The author delivers in thoroughness when he explores the many steps that brought psychiatry to its current state. His unique viewpoint and experience make his writing indispensable. The book serves as a good accompaniment to such titles as Breggin's "Toxic Psychiatry," Bentall's "Reconstructing Schizophrenia," Valenstein's "Blaming The Brain," Becker's "The Revolution in Psychiatry," and Szasz' "The Manufacture of Madness."