All Posts Tagged With: "mental health"
The Medicalization of Suicide
Everyone now knows that suicide is a medical problem. Not long ago everyone knew that it was a religious and criminal problem. Bereft of the power of critical thinking and lacking historical knowledge, the human mind is a sponge for absorbing and magnifying error. The great American humorist Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw, 1818–1885) said [...]
22Sep2010 | Thomas Szasz | 3 comments | ContinuedTherapeutic 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 [...]
1May2007 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | ContinuedTaxing for Therapy
The Marxian credo, “From each according to his
abilities, to each according to his needs,” is the
moral foundation of the progressive tax policies
of modern capitalist societies. The psychiatric credo,
“From each producer according to his income, to each
psychiatric parasite according to his cunning,” amplifies
that creed and garbs it in the mantle of therapy.
Parity 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 | ContinuedRemembering Masturbatory Insanity
“Every age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or phantasy into which it plunges, spurred on either by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation.” —Charles Mackay Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds The contemporary mental health movement—epitomized by the dogmatic belief that “mental illness [...]
1May2000 | Thomas Szasz | 1 comment | ContinuedSuicide as a Moral Issue
“Suicide is an event that is a part of human nature. However much may have been said and done about it in the past, every person must confront it for himself anew, and every age must come to its own terms with it.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) Behind Goethe’s simple statement lies a profound [...]
1Jul1999 | Thomas Szasz | 7 comments | Continued-
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