Thomas Szasz Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Kindness, Men, People

  20 Copy quote

• Classifying thoughts, feelings and behaviors as diseases is a logical and semantic error, like classifying whale as fish.

  Thomas Szasz

  Errors, Whales, Feelings

  9 Copy quote

• Punishment is now unfashionable... because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility.

  Thomas Szasz

  Meaningful, Anger, Responsibility

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

  18 Copy quote

• Institutional psychiatry is a continuation of the Inquisition. All that has really changed is the vocabulary and the social style. The vocabulary conforms to the intellectual expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-medical jargon that parodies the concepts of science. The social style conforms to the political expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-liberal social movement that parodies the ideals of freedom and rationality.

  Thomas Szasz

  Vocabulary, Expectations, Political

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1997). “The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement”, p.27, Syracuse University Press

  19 Copy quote

• There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography.

  Thomas Szasz

  Psychology, Biographies, Autobiography

  The Second Sin

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Gynecology, Addiction, Drug

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (2003). “Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers”, p.11, Syracuse University Press

  28 Copy quote

• We should pledge ourselves to the proposition that the irresponsible life is not worth living.

  Thomas Szasz

  Life Is, Should, Cognitive Therapy

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1989). “Law, Liberty, and Psychiatry: An Inquiry Into the Social Uses of Mental Health Practices”, p.255, Syracuse University Press

  9 Copy quote

• If someone does something we disapprove of, we regard him as bad if we believe we can deter him from persisting in his conduct, but we regard him as mad if we believe we cannot.

  Thomas Szasz

  Believe, Mad, Doe

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

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Psychosis, Doubt, Neurosis

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

  40 Copy quote

• A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power.

  Thomas Szasz

  Education, Teacher, Retirement

  'The Second Sin' (1973) 'Education'

  14 Copy quote

• If someone does something we disapprove of, we regard him as bad if we believe we can deter him from persisting in his conduct, but we regard him as mad if we believe we cannot. In either case, the crucial issue is our control of the other: the more we lose control over him, and the more he assumes control over himself, the more, in case of conflict, we are likely to consider him mad rather than just bad.

  Thomas Szasz

  Believe, Issues, Mad

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

  7 Copy quote

• He who does not accept and respect those who want to reject life does not truly accept and respect life itself.

  Thomas Szasz

  Suicide, Respect, Suicidal

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

  21 Copy quote

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

  Thomas Szasz

  Age, Pork, Heroin

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

  17 Copy quote

• The disease concept of homosexuality as with the disease concept of all so-called mental illnesses, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, or suicide conceals the fact that homosexuals are a group of medically stigmatized and socially persecuted individuals. ... Their anguished cries of protest are drowned out by the rhetoric of therapy just as the rhetoric of salvation drowned out the [cries] of heretics.

  Thomas Szasz

  Suicide, Addiction, Drug

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1997). “The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement”, p.168, Syracuse University Press

  14 Copy quote

• I submit that the traditional definition of psychiatry, which is still vogue, places it alongside such things as alchemy and astrology, and commits it to the category of pseudo-science.

  Thomas Szasz

  Astrology, Pseudo, Definitions

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Self, Gains, Succeed

  7 Copy quote

• No further evidence is needed to show that 'mental illness' is not the name of a biological condition whose nature awaits to be elucidated, but is the name of a concept whose purpose is to obscure the obvious.

  Thomas Szasz

  Nature, Names, Purpose

  Thomas Szasz (2017). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.137, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• Competence in heterosexuality, or at least the appearance or pretense of such competence, is as much a public affair as a privateone. Thus, going steady is a high school diploma in heterosexuality; engagement a BA; marriage an MA; and children a Ph.D.

  Thomas Szasz

  Children, School, Heterosexuality

  15 Copy quote

• Permissiveness is the principle of treating children as if they were adults; and the tactic of making sure they never reach that stage.

  Thomas Szasz

  Children, Adults, Principles

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

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Thomas Szasz

  Men, Thinking, Noble

  "Anti-Freud: Karl Kraus's Criticism of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry". Book by Thomas Szasz, May 1, 1990.

  8 Copy quote

• The homosexual is a scapegoat who evokes no sympathy. Hence, he can only be a victim, never a martyr.

  Thomas Szasz

  Victim, Evoke, Martyr

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1997). “The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement”, p.169, Syracuse University Press

  7 Copy quote

• The passion to interpret as madness that with which we disagree seems to have infected the best of contemporary minds.

  Thomas Szasz

  Passion, Mind, Madness

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1997). “The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement”, p.203, Syracuse University Press

  10 Copy quote

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

  Thomas Szasz

  Humor, Intelligent, America

  18 Copy quote

• Man cannot long survive without air, water, and sleep. Next in importance comes food. And close on its heels, solitude.

  Thomas Szasz

  Sleep, Men, Air

  Thomas Stephen Szasz “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, Transaction Publishers

  8 Copy quote

• The basic ingredients of psychotherapy are religion, rhetoric, and repression, which are themselves mutually overlapping categories.

  Thomas Szasz

  Religion, Ingredients, Categories

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1978). “The Myth of Psychotherapy: Mental Healing As Religion, Rhetoric, and Repression”, p.25, Syracuse University Press

  8 Copy quote

Page 4 of 5

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin