Thomas Szasz Quotes

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• Mental illness is a myth, whose function is to disguise and thus render more palatable the bitter pill of moral conflicts in human relations.

  Thomas Szasz

  Pills, Moral, Bitter

  Thomas Szasz (2017). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.156, Routledge

  56 Copy quote

• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Becoming, Vulnerable, Victim

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  In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined.

  Thomas Szasz

  Animal, Kingdoms, Totems

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (2004). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.65, Transaction Publishers

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• The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.

  Thomas Szasz

  Life, Forgiveness, Letting Go

  The Second Sin (1973) "Personal Conduct"

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• Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.

  Thomas Szasz

  Courage, Thinking, Clear

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (2004). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.139, Transaction Publishers

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• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Self Esteem, Oxygen, Self Respect

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1973). “The second sin”, Anchor

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• Labeling a child as mentally ill is stigmatization, not diagnosis. Giving a child a psychiatric drug is poisoning, not treatment.

  Thomas Szasz

  Children, Giving, Drug

  Thomas Szasz's remarks at the 35th Anniversary and Human Rights Award Dinner of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, www.szasz.com. February 28, 2004.

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• The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic - in short, the closest thing to a genuine panacea - known to medical science is work.

  Thomas Szasz

  Work, Medical Science, Antibiotics

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1973). “The second sin”, Anchor

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• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Positive, Education, Children

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (2004). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.40, Transaction Publishers

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• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Life, Wisdom, Creating

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (2004). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.139, Transaction Publishers

  99 Copy quote

• In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients.

  Thomas Szasz

  Past, Men, Patient

  "The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement". Book by Thomas Szasz, 1970.

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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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Men, Differences, Feelings

  "The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement". Book by Thomas Szasz, 1970.

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  War, Self, Two

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1990). “The Untamed Tongue: A Dissenting Dictionary”, Open Court Publishing Company

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• Psychiatry is probably the single most destructive force that has affected American Society within the last fifty years.

  Thomas Szasz

  Years, Medicine, Fifty

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  If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.

  Thomas Szasz

  Depression, Prayer, Humorous

  The Second Sin "Schizophrenia" (1973)

  110 Copy quote

• The proverb warns that 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself.

  Thomas Szasz

  Hands, Self Reliance, Liberty

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1973). “The second sin”, Anchor

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• Science can give us power over nature, but it cannot give us power over human nature.

  Thomas Szasz

  Giving, Human Nature, Humans

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• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Hurt, Vanity, Self

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• The FDA calls certain substances "controlled." But there are no "controlled substances," there are only controlled citizens.

  Thomas Szasz

  Fda, Political, Citizens

  62 Copy quote

• Delusion: belief said to be false by someone who does not share it.

  Thomas Szasz

  Believe, Doe, Belief

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• Knowledge is gained by learning; trust by doubt; skill by practice; and love by love.

  Thomas Szasz

  Love, Inspirational, Learning

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (2004). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.139, Transaction Publishers

  31 Copy quote

• The poor need jobs and money, not psychoanalysis. The uneducated need knowledge and skills, not psychoanalysis.

  Thomas Szasz

  Jobs, Skills, Needs

  Thomas Szasz (1988). “The Ethics of Psychoanalysis: The Theory and Method of Autonomous Psychotherapy”, p.28, Syracuse University Press

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• The plague of mankind is the fear and rejection of diversity: monotheism, monarchy, monogamy and, in our age, monomedicine. The belief that there is only one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to man: members of his own species, bent on ensuring his salvation, security, and sanity.

  Thomas Szasz

  Religious, Men, Roots

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• We achieve active mastery over illness and death by delegating all responsibility for their management to physicians, and by exiling the sick and the dying to hospitals. But hospitals serve the convenience of staff not patients: we cannot be properly ill in a hospital, nor die in one decently; we can do so only among those who love and value us. The result is the institutionalized dehumanization of the ill, characteristic of our age.

  Thomas Szasz

  Love, Responsibility, Sick

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• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Suicide, Suicidal, Mean

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