Homosexuality had just been removed as from the DSM as a pathology. They thought valium was good for everything that qualudes didn't help, it was a different time.
that being said. You're responding personally to a statement in a book by a doctor who has every right to feel that the patients are merely whiny nuerotics. That's kind of the point, that back before insurance booted your ass from the hospital after a week unless you're under the age of 18 with no where to go, or genuinely in need of intensive care and have the ability to benefit from it, AND have really good insurance, um... where was I? right... before that was the case in psychiatric hospitals, people just got stuck there...
Some, if not many of these people could have gotten "unstuck" if they'd taken some control, but by then, they'd been institutionalized.
this is a HUGE issue, that you're making a personal one. No one said that your psychological/psychiatric issues make you stupid.