Hungarian-American psychiatrist and activist (1920–2012)
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Thomas Szasz
Szász Tamás István
Born
Thomas Stephen Szasz
(1920-04-15)April 15, 1920
Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary
Died
September 8, 2012(2012-09-08) (aged 92)
Manlius, New York, U.S.[3]
Citizenship
Hungary, United States
Alma mater
University of Cincinnati
Known for
Criticism of psychiatry
Spouse
Rosine Loshkajian (m. 1951; died 1971)
Children
2
Awards
Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged (1974),[1] Martin Buber Award (1974), Humanist Laureate Award (1995), Great Lake Association of Clinical Medicine Patients' Rights Advocate Award (1995), American Psychological Association Rollo May Award (1998)[2]
Scientific career
Fields
Psychiatry
Institutions
State University of New York Upstate Medical University
Website
szasz.com
Thomas Stephen Szasz (/sɑːs/SAHSS; Hungarian: Szász Tamás István[saːs]; 15 April 1920 – 8 September 2012) was a Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist. He served for most of his career as professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York.[4] A distinguished lifetime fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a life member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, he was best known as a social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, as what he saw as the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as scientism.
His books The Myth of Mental Illness (1961) and The Manufacture of Madness (1970) set out some of the arguments most associated with him.[5]
Szasz argued throughout his career that mental illness is a metaphor for human problems in living, and that mental illnesses are not "illnesses" in the sense that physical illnesses are, and that except for a few identifiable brain diseases, there are "neither biological or chemical tests nor biopsy or necropsy findings for verifying DSM diagnoses."[6]
Szasz maintained throughout his career that he was not anti-psychiatry but rather that he opposed coercive psychiatry. He was a staunch opponent of civil commitment and involuntary psychiatric treatment, but he believed in and practiced psychiatry and psychotherapy between consenting adults.
^Cite error: The named reference Jefferson Awards was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Barker was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Carey, Benedict (12 September 2012). "Dr Thomas Szasz, Psychiatrist who led movement against his field, dies at 92". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 February 2017. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
^Knoll, James (13 September 2012). "In Memoriam – Thomas Stephen Szasz, MD". Psychiatric Times. Archived from the original on 15 June 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
^Rosen, Jonathan (19 July 2023). "Quadruplets With Schizophrenia? Researchers Were Confounded". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
^Szasz, Thomas (2008). Psychiatry: the science of lies. Syracuse University Press. pp. 2–5. ISBN 978-0815609100. Archived from the original on 16 May 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
Thomas Stephen Szasz (/sɑːs/ SAHSS; Hungarian: Szász Tamás István [saːs]; 15 April 1920 – 8 September 2012) was a Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist...
Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct is a 1961 book by the psychiatrist ThomasSzasz, in which the author criticizes psychiatry and argues against the concept...
breakdown". — Richard E. Vatz, co-author of explication of views of ThomasSzasz in "ThomasSzasz: Primary Values and Major Contentions"[page needed] There are...
worthy recipient of CCHR's ThomasSzasz Award." I pregiudizi e la conoscenza critica alla psichiatria (preface by Thomas S. Szasz), ed. Coop. Apache – 1986...
organization established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist ThomasSzasz.: 170 : 294 Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, its stated mission...
mental asylum for a 90-day evaluation, but the ACLU and psychiatrist ThomasSzasz protested along with rightist groups, and Walker was released in five...
literature in the 1970s in the works of Irving Zola, Peter Conrad and ThomasSzasz, among others. According to Eric Cassell's book, The Nature of Suffering...
Prohibition: The Shame of Medicine By ThomasSzasz. pg 60-62] [Suicide Prohibition: The Shame of Medicine By ThomasSzasz pg 62] [Lawrence Langer, Versions...
Mental Hospitalization (AAAIMH) was an organization founded in 1970 by ThomasSzasz, George Alexander, and Erving Goffman for the purpose of abolishing involuntary...
hearing voices of religious beings such as God, angels, or the Devil. ThomasSzasz critiques the concept of religious auditory hallucination: those who...
Medical Association consensually declared masturbation as normal in 1972. ThomasSzasz states the shift in scientific consensus as "Masturbation: the primary...
jewel that had been given to him earlier by a dwarf. Narcisse Snake Pits "Coerrcion as Cure: A critical history of psychiatry". Author ThomasSzasz. 2007....
with other non-tenured professors, for supporting tenured Professor ThomasSzasz in a dispute with the administration over academic freedom. After a year...
masturbation has not been a diagnosable condition since DSM II (1968). ThomasSzasz stated in 1973 the shift in scientific consensus: "Masturbation: the...
fiftieth anniversary edition of his book The Myth of Mental Illness, ThomasSzasz says that Semmelweis's biography impressed upon him at a young age, a...
According to ThomasSzasz, mental illness is a social construct. He views psychiatry as a social control and mechanism for political oppression. Szasz wrote...
practice, for example those associated with David Cooper, R. D. Laing and ThomasSzasz. Features of CPN are pragmatism and full acknowledgment of the suffering...
make should be respected.[citation needed] Philosopher and psychiatrist ThomasSzasz goes further, arguing that suicide is the most basic right of all. If...
by the World Health Organization. A popular proponent of this theory, ThomasSzasz, has argued that ADHD was "invented and not discovered." Psychiatrists...
Outstanding Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged Cesar Chavez ThomasSzasz Leon Sullivan Theodore Hesburgh Howard Rusk Jerry Lewis Jesse Jackson...
of California's "diminished capacity" law. In June 1979, psychiatrist ThomasSzasz, a critic of forensic psychiatry, gave a speech to a large audience in...
include those at prisons in Portlaise, Castelrea, and Cork. Psychiatrist ThomasSzasz in Hungary has argued that psychiatric hospitals are like prisons unlike...
Rosenberg was influenced by the 1961 books The Myth of Mental Illness by ThomasSzasz and Asylums by Erving Goffman. He also remembered reading Albert Bandura...
Professionals, such as David Rosenhan, Peter Breggin, Paula Caplan, ThomasSzasz and Stuart A. Kirk sustain that psychiatry engages "in the systematic...
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