Analysis Of Shrink Wrapped, By David Liebert

In the novel Shrink Wrapped, author David Liebert includes many aspects that would acknowledge the novel as a part of the antipsychiatry movement. This novel includes the communal theme of “what is mental illness?” Shrink Wrapped follows the main proponents of anti-psychiatry through the development of three key factors. The first key proponent of this novel advocates that mental illness gives people an excuse to reduce personal obligation and responsibly for themselves. The second main factor of this book that would indicate it could take part in an antipsychiatry movement is that there is no medical evidence that can prove that mental illness is the result of compromised genetics or chemical imbalances of the human brain so why prescribe medication. The third …show more content…
These are three important aspects of Shrink Wrapped, which would recognize the novel as a portion of the antipsychiatry movement. Shrink Wrapped indicates that mental illness gives people an excuse to reduce personal obligation and responsibly for themselves. This idea is centered on the anti-psychiatry movement. “Thomas Szasz claimed mental illness was not a disease, rather better thought of as mere problems of living” (Liebert,2014,p.19). Shrink Wrapped displays an effective effort to show this idea in the short story “A Modern Pedagogy.” This short story begins with elementary-aged students receiving prescriptions for ADHD in order to raise their test scores. Modern Pedagogy is centered on a new teacher, Matthew, who has never seen children being prescribed medication to do better in school. This causes