Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Thomas Szasz

Quote by Thomas Szasz

Work

The second sin

This book delves into complex characters and their struggles with sin and its consequences, offering a nuanced examination of human behavior and the quest for forgiveness. more

Author

Thomas Szasz
Thomas Szasz

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. more

You May Also Like

“For Jews, the Messiah has never come; for Christians, He has come but once; for modern man, He appears and disappears with increasing rapidity. The saviors of modern man, the "scientists" who promise salvation through the "discoveries" of ethology and sociology, psychology and psychiatry, and all the other bogus religions, issue forth periodically, as if selected by some Messiah-of-the-Month Club.”

IfsMenChristianIssuesPsychologyModernMonthsPromiseDiscoveryScientistSalvationJewClubsDisappearSaviorSociologyPsychiatrySelectedMessiahModern Man
Author:Thomas Szasz
Create image

“If, nevertheless, textbooks of pharmacology legitimately contain a chapter on drug abuse and drug addiction, then, by the same token, textbooks of gynecology and urology should contain a chapter on prostitution; textbooks of physiology, a chapter on perversion; textbooks of genetics, a chapter on the racial inferiority of Jews and Negroes.”

IfsShouldDrugAbuseAddictionJewChaptersNeverthelessProstitutionGeneticsInferiorityTextbooksDrug AddictionDrug AddictTokensPerversionPhysiologyDrug AbusePharmacologyGynecology
Book:Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers
Create image

“The great shift... is the movement away from the value-laden languages of... the "humanities," and toward the ostensibly value-neutral languages of the "sciences." This attempt to escape from, or to deny, valuation is... especially important in psychology... and the so-called social sciences. Indeed, one could go so far as to say that the specialized languages of these disciplines serve virtually no other purpose than to conceal valuation behind an ostensibly scientific and therefore nonvaluational semantic screen.”

ImportantPurposeValuesHumanityLanguageSocialBehindsPsychologyMovementDisciplineDenyScreensSocial ScienceValuation
Author:Thomas Szasz
Create image

“As the dominant social ethic changed from a religious to a secular one, the problem of heresy disappeared, and the problem of madness arose and became of great social significance. In the next chapter I shall examine the creation of social deviants, and shall show that as formerly priests had manufactured heretics, so physicians, as the new guardians of social conduct and morality, began to manufacture madmen.”

ShowsProblemNextSocialReligiousCreationChangedMoralityEthicsMadnessPriestsSignificanceChaptersSecularPhysiciansDominantGuardianHeresyMadmenHereticDeviantsNext Chapter
Author:Thomas Szasz
Create image

“We shall therefore compare the concept of homosexuality as heresy, prevalent in the days of the witch-hunts, with the concept of homosexuality as mental illness, prevalent today.”

TodayConceptsIllnessMental IllnessCompareWitchHomosexualityHuntsHeresyWitch Hunt
Book:The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement
Create image

“The Christian ethic did not raise the worth of female life much above the Jewish: nor did the clinical ethic raise it much above the clerical. This is why most of those identified as witches by male inquisitors were women; and why most of those diagnosed as hysterics by male psychiatrists were also women.”

ChristianEthicsFemaleRaisesMalesWitchPsychiatristClinicalsChristian Ethics
Book:The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement
Create image

“In English-speaking countries, the connection between heresy and homosexuality is expressed through the use of a single word to denote both concepts: buggery. ... Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (Third Edition) defines "buggery" as "heresy, sodomy.”

CountryUseConceptsConnectionsThirdsHomosexualityDictionaryHeresySingle WordEnglish Speaking
Book:The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement
Create image