The Myth of Psychotherapy & Hunger of Memory
In Richard RodriguezÆs Hunger of Memory and Thomas SzaszÆ The Myth of Psychotherapy, both authors have a similar goal. In Hunger of Memory, Rodriguez undermines the notion that bilingual education and affirmative action are beneficial for minorities in the U.S. In The Myth of Psychotherapy, Szasz argues that psychotherapy has become an enormous threat to those who do not wish to be characterized by Freudian and other psychological theories. In both works, the authors provide a history. Rodriguez provides a history of his growing up, education, and assimilation into mainstream American culture. Szasz provides an account of the history of psychotherapy. In constructing these histories, both authors deconstruct common notions typically applied to minority existence and psychotherapy respectively.
In The Myth of Psychotherapy, Szasz contends that the coming together of patient and therapist has ônothing whatever to do with psyches and are not therapeuticö (4). Szasz argues that the history of psychotherapy, especially the base rhetoric of individuals like Sigmund Freud, has resulted in a field that classifies the human race as psychopathically crippled neurotics. Szasz argues that Freud had a hidden agenda of asserting Jewish superiority compared to Catholicism. Szasz maintains that the rhetoric of psychotherapy is the primary agent of despiritualization of others. As he writes, ôDefinitions, especially the power to construct definitions and to impose them on others, are of great importance in all aspectsö (Szasz, 4). In short, Szasz contends that psychotherapy and psychoanalysis are pseudoscience and misguides when relating different states of minds to medical diseases.
In Hunger of Memory, we see Rodriguez also focuses on how language, words, and rhetoric are responsible for misguiding development. Born of first generation Mexican immigrants in the U.S.
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