Archive for Thomas Szasz
Thomas Szasz is professor of psychiatry emeritus at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. His latest book, Suicide Prohibition: The Shame of Medicine, will be published in October by Syracuse University Press.
College Suicide: Caveat Vendor
Nulla poena sine lege (no penalty without law). The rule that a person cannot be penalized for doing something that is not prohibited by law has long been viewed as a fundamental principle of free societies. American criminal law does not prohibit suicide. De jure, it is legal to kill yourself. De facto, if you [...]
1May2005 | Thomas Szasz | 1 comment | ContinuedBenjamin Rush and "Medical Marijuana"
Last November the U.S. Supreme Court considered the appeal in Ashcroft v. Raich, regarding approval for so-called medical marijuana, that is, for marijuana by prescription. Hearing the case, Justice Stephen Breyer stated: “Medicine by regulation is better than medicine by referendum.” This is a Hobson’s choice: in either case, the individual is denied free access [...]
1Mar2005 | Thomas Szasz | 1 comment | ContinuedPrimum Nocere
Although the phrase “First, Do No Harm” is not in the Hippocratic Oath, in the opinion of many scholars Hippocrates did originate it. In his book, Epidemics, he wrote: “As to diseases, make a habit of two things—to help, or at least to do no harm.” This principle, usually expressed in its Latin translation, Primum [...]
1Dec2004 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | ContinuedPsychiatric Services
The standard political-philosophical justification for the state is the need of the community for protection from criminals at home and enemies abroad. The community is now believed to be threatened by another group as well: the mentally disordered. Liberals and conservatives take for granted that coercing these persons is also the duty of the government. [...]
1Oct2004 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | ContinuedHouse of Aces
Almost 50 years have passed since I first proposed that the concept of mental illness and the profession of psychiatry rest on fictitious foundations. “Mental illnesses” (henceforth without scare quotes) are behaviors, not diseases. Psychiatry is religion, rhetoric, and repression, not medicine. The basis for understanding mental illness lies in semiotics (the study of signs [...]
1Jul2004 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | ContinuedOn Autogenic Diseases
Our bodies are physico-chemical machines. When the function of the machine deviates from what is generally considered normal and if we regard the deviation as harmful and unwanted, we call the event or process a “disease.” Like all physical-chemical events, diseases have causes, which physicians call “etiology.” The familiar causes of disease are pathogenic microbes, [...]
1May2004 | Thomas Szasz | 2 comments | ContinuedSelf-Ownership or Suicide Prevention?
The core libertarian principle of self-ownership implies that we have a right to commit suicide: the state has no right to forcibly prevent us from killing ourselves. The core psychiatric practice of suicide prevention implies that we have no right to kill ourselves: the state — through its mental health laws and psychiatric agents — [...]
1Mar2004 | Thomas Szasz | 1 comment | ContinuedCivil Liberties and Civil Commitment
Defenders of civil liberties readily recognize when some state interventions—such as censorship of the press or forced religious observances—violate civil liberties. However, many of the same defenders of civil liberties are unable or refuse to recognize when certain other state interventions—such as civil commitment—violate civil liberties.
1Dec2003 | Thomas Szasz | 8 comments | ContinuedTaking Drug Laws Seriously, II
Libertarians univocally assert that the prohibition against initiating violence is a cardinal principle of libertarianism. The peasant in Colombia who grows coca is not initiating violence. The politician in the District of Columbia who enacts laws authorizing the use of military aircraft to bomb and destroy the peasant’s crop does.
1Oct2003 | Thomas Szasz | 2 comments | ContinuedUnequal Justice for All
Drug prohibition is stupid social policy for many reasons, most obviously because forbidden fruit tastes sweeter; that is, because one of the easiest ways for a young person to assert his autonomy is by defying authority, especially arbitrary and hypocritical authority.
1Jul2003 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Myth of Health Insurance
Forty million Americans are said to have no health insurance. Those who do have health insurance are frustrated by having to pay ever-increasing premiums for steadily diminishing medical services. Conventional wisdom tells us that we are facing a “health insurance crisis.” It is important to recognize that what we call “health insurance” has little to [...]
1May2003 | Thomas Szasz | 15 comments | ContinuedParity or Prevarication?
In my March 2002 column I showed that the advocates of parity for mental illness are engaged in a campaign of calculated falsehoods. Their claim that mental diseases are brain diseases is a lie. The last thing the mental-health zealots want is parity in the legal treatment of mental patients and medical patients. Despite being [...]
1Mar2003 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | ContinuedTaking Drug Laws Seriously
One of the referendums in the November election “would have put thousands of drug offenders [in Ohio] into treatment programs instead of prison.” The amendment was supported by many libertarians and friends of libertarians. Propaganda for it was generously funded by billionaires Peter Lewis, George Soros, and John Sperling. Voters rejected it by a ratio [...]
27Jan2003 | Thomas Szasz | 1 comment | ContinuedMental Illness: From Shame to Pride
In the nineteenth century people were ashamed and embarrassed by their mentally ill relatives. This was especially true for parents who had a mentally ill child and for adult children who had a parent incarcerated in an insane asylum. Today, such persons take pride in having a mentally ill "loved one," make a career of [...]
1Nov2002 | Thomas Szasz | 3 comments | ContinuedStraight Talk about Suicide
Suicide–like accident, illness, death, poverty, persecution, and war–has always been with us and has always been regarded as a part of life. Believing that a person’s life belongs to God, not himself, the Jews declared it to be a grievous sin, and Christians and Muslims followed suit. Enlightenment thought did not overtly repudiate this view. [...]
1Sep2002 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | ContinuedInsanity and Intolerance
In the Age of Faith, the Church, viewed as having been established by Christ, was perceived as a perfect society. Hence, it was reasonable that it be empowered to make laws and inflict penalties for their violation, which were viewed as striking at her very life, the unity of belief. The result was the concept [...]
1Jul2002 | Thomas Szasz | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Maternity Hospital and the Mental Hospital
At first sight, the maternity hospital and the mental hospital are two completely different institutions. However, on closer examination, striking similarities emerge. Neither pregnancy nor delivery is a disease; each is an aspect of the mammalian reproductive mechanism. Women delivered babies long before there were special buildings called “lying-in hospitals” established to care for them. [...]
1May2002 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | Continued-
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