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Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers

This book delves into the societal attitudes and legal frameworks that have shaped the perception and treatment of drugs, addicts, and drug dealers in America. more

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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

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“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
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“There is a fundamental similarity between the persecution of individuals who engage in consenting homosexual activity in private, or who ingest, inject, or smoke various substances that alter their feelings and thoughts - and the traditional persecution of men for their religion... What all of these persecutions have in common is that the victims are harassed by the majority not because they engage in overtly aggressive or destructive acts... but because their conduct or appearance offends a group intolerant to and threatened by human differences.”

MenHumansFeelingsIndividualDifferencesCommonGroupsActivityVictimFundamentalsMajorityVariousAppearanceTraditionalSmokeSubstanceDestructiveAggressiveThreatenedHomosexualPersecutionSimilarity
Author:Thomas Szasz
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