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Thomas Szasz

Thomas Szasz Quotes

Psychiatrist

Thomas Szasz, born on April 15, 1920 in Hungary, was a renowned American psychiatrist, writer, and philosopher. He is known for his critical views on psychiatry and liberalism, particularly his skepticism about the nature of mental illness and his emphasis on individual freedom.

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Famous Thomas Szasz Quotes

“Since this is the age of science, not religion, psychiatrists are our rabbis, heroin is our pork, and the addict is the unclean person.”

Persons Age Addict Psychiatrist Heroin Pork Rabbi

Book:The second sin

Source: The second sin

“As the base rhetorician uses language to increase his own power, to produce converts to his own cause, and to create loyal followers of his own person - so the noble rhetorician uses language to wean men away from their inclination to depend on authority, to encourage them to think and speak clearly, and to teach them to be their own masters.”

Thinking Men Persons Use Speak Language Causes Teach Produce Masters Depends Authority Increase Noble Followers Loyal Inclination

Author:Thomas Szasz

“The two greatest enemies of the individual in the modern world are communism and psychiatry. Each wages a relentless war against that which makes a person an individual: communism against the ownership of property, psychiatry against the ownership of the self (mind and body). Communists criminalize the autonomous use of capital and labor, and harshly punish those who "traffic" in the black market, especially in foreign currencies. Psychiatrists criminalize the autonomous use of the self, and harshly punish those who "traffic" in self-abuse, especially in self-medication and self-destruction.”

Source: The Untamed Tongue: A Dissenting Dictionary

“When the psychiatrist approves of a person's actions, he judges that person to have acted with "free choice"; when he disapproves,he judges him to have acted without "free choice." It is small wonder that people find "free choice" a confusing idea: "free choice" appears to refer to what the person being judged (often called the "patient") does, whereas it is actually what the person making the judgment (often a psychiatrist or other mental health worker) thinks.”

People Thinking Persons Doe Ideas Action Choices Wonder Judging Judgment Mental Health Workers Patient Judged Confusing Psychiatrist Free Choice Being Judged Health Workers

Author:Thomas Szasz

“A person cannot make another happy, but he can make him unhappy. This is the main reason why there is more unhappiness than happiness in the world.”

World Persons Reason Unhappy Reason Why Unhappiness

Book:Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary

Source: Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary

“The less a person knows about the workings of the social institutions in his society, the more he must trust those who wield power in it; and the more he trusts those who wield such power, the more vulnerable he makes himself to becoming their victim.”

Knows Persons Social Becoming Victim Institutions Vulnerable Social Institutions

Author:Thomas Szasz

“People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.”

Source: Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary

“Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions.”

Persons Problem Doubt Solutions Claims Conviction Certainty Neurotic Neurosis Psychotic Psychosis Doubt And Certainty

Book:The second sin

Source: The second sin

“When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.”

Persons Laughing Laughter Drinking Favourite Ridicule

Book:Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary

Source: Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary

“Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less.”

Love Persons Term Successful Depends Disease Patient Manifestation Treatment Conceit Narcissist Analysts Conceited Learning To Love Psychoanalytic

Author:Thomas Szasz

“Is psychiatry a medical enterprise concerned with treating diseases, or a humanistic enterprise concerned with helping persons with their personal problems? Psychiatry could be one or the other, but it cannot--despite the pretensions and protestations of psichiatrists--be both.”

Persons Helping Problem Disease Concerned Medical Despite Enterprise Psychiatry Pretension Humanistic Personal Problems

Book:Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences

Source: Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences

“Parents teach children discipline for two different, indeed diametrically opposed, reasons: to render the child submissive to them and to make him independent of them. Only a self-disciplined person can be obedient; and only such a person can be autonomous.”

Children Persons Two Different Self Reason Parent Teach Discipline Independent Obedient Submissive Autonomous

Author:Thomas Szasz

“Suicide is a fundamental human right. This does not mean that it is desirable. It only means that society does not have the moral right to interfere, by force, with a persons decision to commit this act. The result is a far-reaching infantilization and dehumanization of the suicidal person.”

Humans Mean Persons Doe Force Decision Results Moral Fundamentals Suicide Commit Reaching Interfere Desirable Suicidal Dehumanization

Author:Thomas Szasz

“All drugs of any interest to any moderately intelligent person in America are now illegal.”

Persons Humor America Interest Drug Intelligent Addiction Alcohol Illegal Addict Alcoholics Cocaine Drug Addiction Drug Addict Intelligent Person Illegal Drugs Funny Drug

Author:Thomas Szasz

“Self-respect is to the soul as oxygen is to the body. Deprive a person of oxygen, and you kill his body; deprive him of self-respect and you kill his spirit.”

Persons Soul Self Body Spirit Self Esteem Esteem Self Respect Oxygen

Book:The second sin

Source: The second sin

“Addiction, obesity, starvation (anorexia nervosa) are political problems, not psychiatric: each condense and expresses a contest between the individual and some other person or persons in his environment over the control of the individual's body.”

Persons Problem Body Political Individual Environment Addiction Contests Starvation Obesity Anorexia Psychiatric

Author:Thomas Szasz

“The Greeks distinguished between good and bad behavior, language that enhanced or diminished persons. Being intoxicated with scientism, we fail to recognize that the seemingly technical terms used to identify psychiatric illnesses and interventions are simply dyphemisms and euphemisms.”

Persons Used Language Term Failing Behavior Illness Greek Intervention Good And Bad Distinguished Scientism Intoxicated Psychiatric Euphemism Bad Behavior

Author:Thomas Szasz

“Men often treat others worse than they treat themselves, but they rarely treat anyone better. It is the height of folly to expect consideration and decency from a person who mistreats himself.”

People Men Persons Kindness Treats Height Folly Consideration Decency Mistreat

Author:Thomas Szasz

“Psychoanalysis is an attempt to examine a person's self-justifications. Hence it can be undertaken only with the patient's cooperation and can succeed only when the patient has something to gain by abandoning or modifying his system of self-justification.”

Persons Self Succeed Gains Patient Cooperation Justification Psychiatry Psychoanalysis Modifying Self Justification

Author:Thomas Szasz