Today is the 104th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Szasz (1920-2012), the great if unappreciated libertarian and defender of individual autonomy and dignity. A psychiatrist by profession, for over 50 years, Szasz was the foremost critic of the social-control system we call institutional psychiatry, or what we could call the government-medical complex. He called it the Therapeutic State. He opposed involuntary mental hospitalization, forced medication, the insanity defense, prescription laws, drug prohibition, laws against suicide, and the psychiatric position (until the 1970s) that homosexuality was a mental illness requiring forced intervention. I am proud to have had him as a friend and also a columnist when I edited
Only posers hate him, but there are posers everywhere.
One thing I learned from him is that it is good to be provocative and not be afraid of being wrong. Just run headfirst into obstacles and see what happens.
Speaking, asking questions, forcing people confront arguments is good in itself, and it is not only good for expanding knowledge, and it is not only good for defending human rights, but it's the best for human freedom.
To practice freedom is the same as gifting freedom to others.
The greatest problem of scientists is the near absolute terror they have to be wrong about anything. They are frozen at the moment. They need more fire.
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About Szasz books, I always recommend the book on Karl Kraus. I think the Freudian universe is one of the greatest accidents in all the intellectual history of the human race, and it's a pity that people almost never see the comedy side of it.
One of history’s greatest moral philosophers.
Truly a hero, Thomas Szasz.
Only posers hate him, but there are posers everywhere.
One thing I learned from him is that it is good to be provocative and not be afraid of being wrong. Just run headfirst into obstacles and see what happens.
Speaking, asking questions, forcing people confront arguments is good in itself, and it is not only good for expanding knowledge, and it is not only good for defending human rights, but it's the best for human freedom.
To practice freedom is the same as gifting freedom to others.
The greatest problem of scientists is the near absolute terror they have to be wrong about anything. They are frozen at the moment. They need more fire.
--
About Szasz books, I always recommend the book on Karl Kraus. I think the Freudian universe is one of the greatest accidents in all the intellectual history of the human race, and it's a pity that people almost never see the comedy side of it.