Thomas Szasz Biography

Born asThomas Stephen Szasz
Occup.Psychologist
FromUSA
BornApril 15, 1920
Budapest, Hungary
DiedSeptember 8, 2012
Manlius, New York, United States
CauseNatural causes
Aged92 years
Early Life and Education And Learning
Thomas Stephen Szasz was born on April 15, 1920, in Budapest, Hungary. Birthed into a Jewish family, Szasz had 2 more youthful siblings, George and also Julius. His dad, Julius Szasz, was a successful business owner, while his mom, Lily Wellisch, was a homeowner. The family members arrived to the United States in 1938 due to the intensifying political stress in Europe as well as settled in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Szasz got his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the University of Cincinnati in 1941. He after that went after more education at the Chicago Medical School, finishing with a clinical degree in 1944. Upon conclusion of his researches, Szasz began his medical teaching fellowship at Cincinnati General Hospital, where he determined to focus on psychiatry.

Psychiatry as well as the Myth of Mental Illness
After finishing his residency at the University of Chicago Clinics in 1948, Szasz worked as a staff psychoanalyst at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Throughout his time there, he began to establish a crucial view of the psychological career, suggesting that the idea of mental disease was essentially a misconception, a placement that he would later create and promote.

In 1956, he signed up with the professors of the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University in Syracuse as a professor of psychiatry. Szasz released his groundbreaking book, "The Myth of Mental Illness", in 1961. In this controversial job, Szasz suggested that mental disorders were not authentic biological diseases, yet rather labels assigned by culture to individuals whose habits was considered uncommon or deviant.

Szasz additionally established his critique of psychiatry in subsequent books such as "Law, Liberty, and Psychiatry" (1963), "The Manufacture of Madness" (1970), and "Ideology and Insanity" (1970). He maintained that psychiatric medical diagnoses were naturally subjective and also did not have scientific credibility, which coercive psychiatric therapy-- uncontrolled a hospital stay, for example-- breached fundamental human rights.

Cooperations and Influence
Throughout his career, Szasz's work located vibration with various constitutionals rights teams, including those supporting for the rights of psychological clients and prisoners. He collaborated with fellow liberal lobbyists such as lawyer and also psychological health and wellness advocate Ernest Gellhorn, who aided include his ideas into the lawful system.

Szasz likewise forged a stimulating intellectual collaboration with economist and also social theorist F. A. Hayek, whose sights on private liberty and also the limits of state power complemented his review of the psychiatric establishment. Szasz's suggestions also played a significant role in the rise of the anti-psychiatry activity in the 1960s and 1970s, although he distanced himself from this movement in the future, as a result of its regarded lack of coherence and also consistency.

Despite the controversy surrounding his work, Szasz got various honors and awards throughout his occupation. These included the Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association in 1973, the Rollo May Award for Humanistic Psychology from the American Psychological Association in 1980, as well as an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Whittier College in 1989.

Personal Life as well as Death
Thomas Szasz was married to Rosine Loshkajian in 1951, with whom he had 2 little girls, Margot and also Suzy. The couple later on separated in 1970. Szasz remarried in 1973 to Therese Singer, who died in 2011.

He remained to contribute to the psychiatric and also philosophical discourse, editing 35 books as well as many write-ups throughout his respected career. Thomas Szasz passed away on September 8, 2012, in Manlius, New York, at the age of 92. Although his views were not generally approved within the mental health career, Szasz's work unquestionably challenged standard thinking as well as asked for a much more gentle, compassionate, as well as respectful method towards people experiencing psychological distress.

Our collection contains 26 quotes who is written / told by Thomas, under the main topic Society.

Related authors: Philo (Philosopher), Rollo May (Psychologist), Lawrence Taylor (Athlete)

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26 Famous quotes by Thomas Szasz

Small: Permissiveness is the principle of treating children as if they were adults and the tactic of making su
"Permissiveness is the principle of treating children as if they were adults; and the tactic of making sure they never reach that stage"
Small: Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to ones self-esteem.
"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"
Small: Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons
"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"
Small: Psychiatric expert testimony: mendacity masquerading as medicine
"Psychiatric expert testimony: mendacity masquerading as medicine"
Small: He who does not accept and respect those who want to reject life does not truly accept and respect life
"He who does not accept and respect those who want to reject life does not truly accept and respect life itself"
Small: A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong
"A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong"
Small: When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him
"When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him"
Small: Punishment is now unfashionable... because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democ
"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"
Small: No further evidence is needed to show that mental illness is not the name of a biological condition who
"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"
Small: If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia
"If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia"
Small: If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist if God talks to you, you are a schizophrenic
"If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; if God talks to you, you are a schizophrenic"
Small: Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence
"Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence"
Small: Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst considered to be
"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"
Small: It is easier to do ones duty to others than to ones self. If you do your duty to others, you are consid
"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"
Small: In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten in the human kingdom, define or be defined
"In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined"
Small: Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time serenity, that nothing is
"Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is"
Small: A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power
"A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power"
Small: People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one
"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"
Small: Two wrongs dont make a right, but they make a good excuse
"Two wrongs don't make a right, but they make a good excuse"
Small: The stupid neither forgive nor forget the naive forgive and forget the wise forgive but do not forget
"The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget"
Small: Adulthood is the ever-shrinking period between childhood and old age. It is the apparent aim of modern
"Adulthood is the ever-shrinking period between childhood and old age. It is the apparent aim of modern industrial societies to reduce this period to a minimum"
Small: Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine now, when science i
"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"
Small: The system isnt stupid, but the people in it are
"The system isn't stupid, but the people in it are"
Small: The proverb warns that You should not bite the hand that feeds you. But maybe you should, if it prevent
"The proverb warns that 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself"
Small: Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually a
"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"
Small: There is no psychology there is only biography and autobiography
"There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography"