Voting Station

Thomas Szasz

Please vote to return to collections.

Doctor

The Resume

    (April 15, 1920-September 8, 2012)
    Born in Budapest, Hungary
    Psychiatrist turned critic of psychiatry
    Wrote 'The Myth of Mental Illness' (1961), 'The Manufacture of Madness' (1970), 'Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts and Pushers' (1974), 'The Myth of Psychotherapy' (1978), 'Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences' (1987), 'Cruel Compassion: Psychiatric Control of Society's Unwanted' (1994), 'The Medicalization of Everyday Life' (2007) and 'Psychiatry: The Science of Lies' (2008)
    Claimed most mental illnesses -- including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and schizophrenia -- were not real diseases but 'problems in living'

Why he might be annoying:

    He waited to publish his attack on psychiatry until he was safely tenured as a professor.
    He claimed that most mentally ill people were faking it, consciously or not.
    He kept insisting that there was no biological basis to any mental illnesses despite growing evidence that there was such a basis for several illnesses, including depression and schizophrenia.
    He lent some respectability to Scientology by joining them to found the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (1969).
    He gave up his private practice after being sued by the widow of a patient who committed suicide after Szasz told him to stop taking lithium to treat his depression (1992).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He campaigned against the use of 'coercive treatments,' including electroshock therapy and lobotomy.
    Dr. Robert Dasly said, 'He helped sensitize everybody to what, in fact, they were doing.'
    He did not endorse any of Scientology's religious claims.
    He criticized the 'war on drugs,' arguing drug abuse was a victimless crime.
    He scored some points, such as asking, if mental illnesses are real diseases, how did homosexuality stop being one when the only thing that had changed was society's attitude?

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 200 Votes: 22.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 16 Votes: 81.25% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying