The Therapeutic State

The Shame of Medicine: The Case of General Edwin Walker

In 1962 James Meredith, an African-American student, tried to enroll at the University of Mississippi. His admission was opposed by Ross Barnett, the Democratic governor of the state, former Major General Edwin A. Walker (1909–1993), a decorated hero of World War II and prominent “right-winger,” and a group of segregationist white students. To ensure Meredith’s [...]

23Sep2009 | Thomas Szasz | 3 comments | Continued

The Shame of Medicine: The Depravity of Psychiatry

Psychiatrists alternately deny and delight in possessing special professional skill at detecting future “dangerousness” that entitles them to the special power to incarcerate individuals they so stigmatize in prisons that masquerade as hospitals. The American legal system makes heavy use of psychiatric determinations of dangerousness, as a result of which vast numbers of Americans are deprived of liberty and, at the same time, of opportunity to demonstrate the injustice of their detention. Examples abound.

17Jun2009 | Thomas Szasz | 9 comments | Continued

The Shame of Medicine: The Case of Alan Turing

The posthumous diagnosis of suicide as mental illness is the ritual degradation ceremony of our therapeutic age, much as the posthumous burning of the heretic’s corpse was the ritual degradation ceremony of an earlier theological age.

24Apr2009 | Thomas Szasz | 15 comments | Continued
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The Burden of Responsibility

Life is an unending series of choices and, therefore, “problems in living.” Ordinary choices—what to have for breakfast—we ignore as trivial. Extraordinary choices—whether to kill ourselves (or worse)—we dismiss as the symptoms of mental illness. The profession of psychiatry rests on, and caters to, the ubiquitous human desire to avoid, evade, and deny the very [...]

1Dec2008 | Thomas Szasz | 1 comment | Continued

Psychiatry Versus Liberty

For millennia, slavery—involuntary servitude—was a universally accepted social institution. Today, psychiatric slavery—involuntary “treatment for mental illness”—is such an institution. Psychiatric incarceration and forced psychiatric treatment are integral parts of modern medical practice and social life.
The libertarian philosophy of freedom is based on the premise that self-ownership is a basic right and that initiating violence against [...]

1Jul2008 | Thomas Szasz | 1 comment | Continued

Treatments Without Diseases

In the psychiatrically correct view, mental illnesses are “just like bodily illnesses”; in fact, they are authoritatively declared to be “brain diseases.” The truth is that they are not. In medicine, there are diseases and, sometimes, treatments for them. In psychiatry, there are no diseases; nevertheless there are always treatments; that is, procedures declared to [...]

1Mar2008 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | Continued

Therapeutic Censorship

Freedom of speech is one of the most distinctly American political values. In many European democracies people take for granted that their freedom requires criminal sanctions against the expression of certain odious ideas, exemplified by the denial of the Holocaust. In the United States, that would be a clear violation of the First Amendment.
To be [...]

1May2007 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | Continued

On Not Admitting Error

According to a September 2006 report in the New York Times, Afghanistan’s opium harvest has increased almost 50 percent from the year before and reached the highest levels ever recorded. Antonio Maria Costa, head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (sic) explained: “It is indeed very bad, you can say it is [...]

1Mar2007 | Thomas Szasz | 2 comments | Continued

Mental Illness: Sickness or Status?

Popular belief and scientific dogma notwithstanding, the term “mental illness” refers to unwanted behavior, not medical malady. Specifically, the term refers to the role of “mental patient,” a social status imbued with far-reaching legal and political implications. The law assumes that persons called “mental patients” are more likely to be dangerous to themselves and/or others [...]

1Aug2006 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | Continued

Mental Illness as Brain Disease: A Brief History Lesson

A 1999 White House Conference on Mental Health concluded: “Research in the last decade proves that mental illnesses are diagnosable disorders of the brain.” President William Clinton was more specific: “Mental illness can be accurately diag­nosed, successfully treated, just as physical illness.” Persons who reject the view that mental illnesses are physical diseases are dismissed [...]

1May2006 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | Continued

Primum 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 | Continued

House 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 | Continued

The 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. Behavioral [...]

1May2002 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | Continued