Schrag, Peter. Mind Control. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. 327 pages.
Born in 1931, Peter Schrag is an educator as well as a former
reporter and editor. His numerous books are critical of American culture,
education, and social policy. Schrag is too cynical to be called a
traditional liberal, but too well-established to trouble himself with
the notion that conspiracies exist in high places. Despite a title that
conspiracy theorists will love, this book is a general criticism of the
mental health industry and the bureaucracy that supports it. Schrag is
worried about the shift from the old punitive methods of social control
(as represented by mental hospitals), to the newer and more frightening
"therapeutic" methods: psychotropic drugs, behavior modification, and the
assault on privacy represented by computers and high-tech surveillance.
He's almost a libertarian, except that he believes that full employment
and an emphasis on improving social conditions (meaning more government?)
will go some distance toward eliminating the need for social control.
Eighteen years later it seems that the biggest narcotic of all,
television and our centralized mass media, deserved at least a footnote
back in 1978. And Schrag's faith in the possibility of enlightened
government seems just a bit old-fashioned. Still, this book is well-
researched and well-written, and provides a critical perspective on
social issues that are too often ignored.
ISBN 0-394-40759-8
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