Thomas Szasz - The Rise of Szasz's Arguments

The Rise of Szasz's Arguments

Szasz first presented his attack on "mental illness" as a legal term in 1958 in the Columbia Law Review. In his article he argued that mental illness was no more a fact bearing on a suspect's guilt than is possession by the devil.

In 1961 Szasz gave testimony before a United States Senate committee in which he argued that the use of mental hospitals to incarcerate people defined as insane violated the general assumptions of patient-and-doctor relationships and turned the doctor into a warden and a keeper of a prison.

Read more about this topic:  Thomas Szasz

Famous quotes containing the words rise, szasz and/or arguments:

    Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    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 (b. 1920)

    Compared to football, baseball is almost an Oriental game, minimizing individual stardom, requiring a wide range of aggressive and defensive skills, and filled with long periods of inaction and irresolution. It has no time limitations. Football, on the other hand, has immediate goals, resolution on every single play, and a lot of violence—itself a highlight. It has clearly distinguishable hierarchies: heroes and drones.
    Jerry Mander, U.S. advertising executive, author. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, ch. 15, Morrow (1978)