The Right To Be Different: Deviance and Enforced Therapy

Abstract

The excellence of Professor Kittrie's book lies in the clarity and even temper of its presentation and in the completeness of the documentation. These virtues are particularly welcome in a book which deals with explosive interdisciplinary issues having to do with the personal responsibility in regard to crime and the position of the state as both a punishing parent and a parent whose duty it is to protect, treat, and rehabilitate the wayward child. The history of the law vis-à-vis responsibility is briefly but fascinatingly traced and the brevity helps make clear the constant trend away from demonic possession and vengeance toward concepts of multiple causality, a softening of the concept of individual responsibility, and thus toward "sickness" (which equals "he couldn't help it") and treatment. Many of his points are those put forward by Thomas Szasz, in a somewhat shriller, but no less cogent form. Particular among these are