Thomas Szasz was an American Psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry who argued that mental illness was a myth and that psychiatry was a form of social control. He was a strong advocate for civil liberties and the rights of individuals to make their own decisions. Szasz was a controversial figure in the field of mental health, and his theories remain influential to this day.

What is the most famous quote by Thomas Szasz ?

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

What can you learn from Thomas Szasz (Life Lessons)

  1. Thomas Szasz taught us to question authority and to think critically about accepted beliefs. He encouraged us to take responsibility for our own actions and to recognize that our mental health is a personal responsibility.
  2. He also emphasized the importance of understanding our own motivations and the power of our own thoughts and ideas.
  3. Finally, Szasz taught us to be mindful of our own biases and to strive for understanding and empathy when interacting with others.

The most superior Thomas Szasz quotes that will add value to your life

Following is a list of the best Thomas Szasz quotes, including various Thomas Szasz inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Thomas Szasz.

Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.

Thomas Szasz
103

The stupid neither forgive nor forget;

the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.

Thomas Szasz
97

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

Thomas Szasz
88

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
87

Who is Thomas Szasz?

Thomas Szasz is a American Psychologist
Nationality American
Profession Psychologist
Born April 15, 1920
Quotes 127 sayings

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

Thomas Szasz
73

When a man says that he is Jesus or Napoleon, or that the Martians are after him, or claims something else that seems outrageous to common sense, he is labeled psychotic and locked up in a madhouse. Freedom of speech is only for normal people.

Thomas Szasz
72

When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.

Thomas Szasz
64

Labeling a child as mentally ill is stigmatization, not diagnosis.

Giving a child a psychiatric drug is poisoning, not treatment.

Thomas Szasz
54

Psychiatric critique quotes by Thomas Szasz

Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less.

Thomas Szasz
49

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

Thomas Szasz
48

The neurotic has problems; the psychotic has solutions.

Thomas Szasz
48

A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong.

Thomas Szasz
46

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
45

The FDA calls certain substances "controlled.

" But there are no "controlled substances," there are only controlled citizens.

Thomas Szasz
44

Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

Thomas Szasz
43

Addiction, obesity, starvation (anorexia nervosa) are political problems, not psychiatric: each condenses and expresses a contest between the individual and some other person or persons in his environment over the control of the individual's body.

Thomas Szasz
42

Quotations by Thomas Szasz that are libertarianism and autonomy

Masturbation: the primary sexual activity of mankind.

In the nineteenth century it was a disease; in the twentieth, it's a cure.

Thomas Szasz
40

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
33

Psychiatry does not commit human rights abuse. It is a human rights abuse.

Thomas Szasz
33

We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility

Thomas Szasz
31

Psychiatric expert testimony: mendacity masquerading as medicine.

Thomas Szasz
28

In the 60s people took acid to make the world weird.

Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal. In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined.

Thomas Szasz
26

Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.

Thomas Szasz
25

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
24

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the na?ve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.

Thomas Szasz
24

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
23

Two wrongs don't make a right, but they make a good excuse.

Thomas Szasz
22

The many faces of intimacy: the Victorians could experience it through correspondence, but not through cohabitation; contemporary men and women can experience it through fornication, but not through friendship.

Thomas Szasz
20

Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.

Thomas Szasz
19

If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order.

Thomas Szasz
18

I favor free trade in drugs for the same reason the Founding Fathers favored free trade in ideas: in a free society it is none of the government's business what ideas a man puts into his mind; likewise, it should be none of its business what drugs he puts into his body.

Thomas Szasz
17

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
16

Sex is a body-contact sport. It is safe to watch but more fun to play.

Thomas Szasz
16

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.

Thomas Szasz
15

Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.

Thomas Szasz
15

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

Thomas Szasz
14

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
14

The Nazis spoke of having a Jewish problem. We now speak of having a drug-abuse problem. Actually, "Jewish problem" was the name the Germans gave to their persecution of the Jews; "drug-abuse problem" is the name we give to the persecution of people who use certain drugs.

Thomas Szasz
14

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
13

If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; if God talks to you, you are a schizophrenic.

Thomas Szasz
12

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
12

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

Thomas Szasz
12

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
11

In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults.

Thomas Szasz
11

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

Thomas Szasz
11

Men are rewarded or punished not for what they do but for how their acts are defined. That is why men are more interested in better justifying themselves than in better behaving themselves.

Thomas Szasz
11

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.

Thomas Szasz
11

Individual psychotherapy - that is, engaging a distressed fellow human in a disciplined conversation and human relationship - requires that the therapist have the proper temperament and philosophy of life for such work. By that I mean that the therapist must be patient, modest, and a perceptive listener, rather than a talker and advice-giver.

Thomas Szasz
10

A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power.

Thomas Szasz
9