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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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All Men Persons Psychiatry People Self Ifs Children Humans Illness Mental Illness Age Drug Psychiatrist Concepts Doe Individual Medical Patient Problem Adults

Famous Thomas Szasz Quotes

“The wise treat self-respect as non-negotiable, and will not trade it for health or wealth or anything else.”

Self Wealth Wise Treats Trade Self Respect

Book:The second sin

Source: The second sin

“Like Karl Kraus [Wittgenstein], was seldom pleased by what he saw of the institutions of men, and the idiom of the passerby mostly offended his ear - particularly when they happened to speak philosophically; and like Karl Kraus, he suspected that the institutions could not but be corrupt if the idiom of the race was confused, presumptuous, and vacuous, a fabric of nonsense, untruth, deception, and self-deception.”

Ifs Men Self Speak Race Saws Happened Ears Institutions Deception Confused Nonsense Fabric Offended Self Deception Untruth Idiom Presumptuous Vacuous Passerby

Author:Thomas Szasz

“So long as men denounce each other as mentally sick (homosexual, addicted, insane, and so forth) so that the madman can always be considered the Other, never the Self mental illness will remain an easily exploitable concept, and Coercive Psychiatry a flourishing institution.”

Men Long Self Concepts Sick Institutions Illness Mental Illness Insane Homosexual Psychiatry Madmen Flourishing

Book:The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement

Source: The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement

“Only idiots and infants need things. The language of needs is the native tongue of socialists, therapists, and paternalists of all sorts and is addressed to needy dependents. The language of wants is spoken by self-respecting adults and is addressed to other self-respecting adults.”

Want Needs Self Language Adults Investing Tongue Idiot Native Infant Therapists Needy

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

“Autonomy... is freedom to develop one's self - to increase one's knowledge, improve one's skills, and achieve responsibility for one's conduct. And it is freedom to lead one's own life, to choose among alternative courses of action so long as no injury to others results.”

Long Self Action Courses Results Responsibility Achieve Skills Increase Alternatives Injury Autonomy

Book:The Ethics of Psychoanalysis: The Theory and Method of Autonomous Psychotherapy

Source: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis: The Theory and Method of Autonomous Psychotherapy

“After generations of living under medical tutelage, which provides us with protection (albeit illusory) against "dangerous drugs", we have failed to cultivate the self-reliance and self-discipline we must possess as competent adults surrounded by the fruits of our pharmacological-technological age.”

Self Age Generations Dangerous Discipline Drug Adults Fruit Protection Medical Self Discipline Technological Self Reliance Reliance Competent Illusory Dangerous Drugs Tutelage

Book:Our Right to Drugs: The Case for a Free Market

Source: Our Right to Drugs: The Case for a Free Market

“Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.”

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

“It is easier to do one's duty to others than to one's self. If you do your duty to others, you are considered reliable. If you do your duty to yourself, you are considered selfish.”

Ifs Self Duty Easier Selfish

Book:The second sin

Source: The second sin

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Aided and abetted by corrupt analysts, patients who have nothing better to do with their lives often use the psychoanalytic situation to transform insignificant childhood hurts into private shrines at which they worship unceasingly the enormity of the offenses committed against them. This solution is immensely flattering to the patients -- as are all forms of unmerited self-aggrandizement; it is immensely profitable for the analysts -- as are all forms pandering to people's vanity; and it is often immensely unpleasant for nearly everyone else in the patient's life.”

People Self Use Form Hurt Situation Childhood Worship Solutions Patient Committed Vanity Offense Insignificant Psychiatry Profitable Flattering Analysts Shrines Psychoanalytic

Author:Thomas Szasz