Thomas Szasz
Also known as Thomas Stephen Szasz
Hungarian-American psychiatrist (1920 to 2012) who called mental illness a myth.
At a glance
Main ideas
Problems in living, The therapeutic state, Against involuntary commitment …
See all 5Criticism
Robert Kendell, Edward Shorter, Williams and Caplan …
See all 4Books to start with
The Myth of Mental Illness, The Manufacture of Madness, Ceremonial Chemistry
See all 3Connections
Ernest Becker and The Myth of Mental Illness
See all 2
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Szasz was a professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University and a leading critic of coercive psychiatry.
- He argued that mental illnesses are not diseases but "problems in living", and that psychiatric diagnoses are judgments used to justify control.
- He opposed involuntary commitment and the insanity defence, and defended a right to drugs and to die.
- He said he was not against psychiatry, only against coercion.
Why it matters
- His attack on psychiatric coercion helped narrow involuntary commitment laws across the United States and still frames debates over mental health and liberty.
Key facts
- Born
- 15 Apr 1920, Budapest, Hungary1
- Died
- 8 Sep 2012, by suicide after a painful spinal fracture, according to his colleague Jeff Schaler1
- Education
- BS in physics and MD, University of Cincinnati; psychoanalytic training in Chicago from 1951 to 19561
- Career
- Professor at the State University of New York from 1956, tenured in 19621
- Co-founded
- The American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization (1970); the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, with the Church of Scientology (1969)1
- Memberships
- Distinguished lifetime fellow of the American Psychiatric Association1
Main ideas
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Problems in living1
"Mental illness" is a metaphor for problems in living, not a disease.
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The therapeutic state1
His 1963 term for government using pseudo-medical cures for disapproved behaviour.
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Against involuntary commitment1
Psychiatry should be between consenting adults only.
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Against the insanity defence1
Competence should be judged by legal means, not presumed by doctors.
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Right to drugs and to die1
Drug use is a victimless crime; suicide is a fundamental right, though he opposed state euthanasia.
Criticism
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Robert Kendell1
Argued that defining disease only as bodily lesion is arbitrary and rests on Cartesian dualism.
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Edward Shorter1
Said his critique targets mid-century psychoanalytic psychiatry, not modern biological psychiatry.
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Williams and Caplan1
Argued his influence had devastating effects on people with severe mental illness.
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Scientology1
He co-founded CCHR with the Church of Scientology; he said he worked with it only for convenience.
Books to start with
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
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His central argument.
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The Manufacture of Madness1
With The Myth of Mental Illness, sets out his best-known arguments.
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Ceremonial Chemistry1
Drug users as modern scapegoats.
Connections
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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