The body language: a semiotic reading of Szasz’ Anti-psychiatry

In “The myth of mental illness” Thomas Szasz challenges the idea that mental illnesses are diseases in the biomedicalsense. In his view they are more similar to a foreign language and for this reason they cannot be treated by means ofbiomedical therapies. The present article explores the semiotic implications of Szasz’s view of the hysterical symptoms asan iconic language. Following Reichenbach, Szasz distinguishes three classes of signs: indexical, iconic and symbolic.The somatic language of the hysteric person would be an iconic protolanguage which is more primordial than theobjective language. Nevertheless, it retains all the basic functions of the language: to transmit information, to inducemood, and to promote action. Five different but intertwined reasons for the use of such an iconic form of communicationare discussed. In conclusion, the hysterical symptom speaks its proper language and our ethical commitment is primarilyto empathically listen to it.