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Thomas Szasz

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Thomas Szasz

Born: April 15, 1920

Nationality: American

Occupation: Psychologist

Biography: Thomas Stephen Szasz is a psychiatrist and academic. Since 1990 he has been Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. He is a well-known social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, and of the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as of scientism.

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“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

Source/Notes: The second sin (1973 edition), Anchor

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“A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power.”

- Thomas Szasz

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“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.”

- Thomas Szasz

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

- Thomas Szasz

Source/Notes: Emotions, p. 36 - The Second Sin (1973)

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“Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.”

- Thomas Szasz

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“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

Source/Notes: Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary (2004 edition), Transaction Publishers - ISBN: 9780765802170

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“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

Source/Notes: Science and Scientism, p. 115 - The Second Sin (1973)

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“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

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

- Thomas Szasz

Source/Notes: The second sin (1973 edition), Anchor

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

- Thomas Szasz

Source/Notes: The second sin (1973 edition), Anchor

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“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

Source/Notes: The second sin (1973 edition), Anchor

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“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

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“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

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“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

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