Thomas Szasz Quotes || If you talk to God, you are praying.....

Thomas Szasz

Thomas Szasz was a Hungarian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who is known for his critical views on psychiatry and the concept of mental illness. He was born on April 15, 1920, in Budapest, Hungary, and passed away on September 8, 2012, in Manlius, New York, United States.

Szasz is most famous for his book "The Myth of Mental Illness," published in 1961. In this book, he argued that mental illness is not a valid medical concept but rather a metaphorical or symbolic expression of personal, social, or moral conflicts. Szasz believed that mental illnesses were essentially problems of living rather than legitimate medical conditions.

According to Szasz, psychiatry, as a medical discipline, had no scientific basis, and he criticized the use of involuntary psychiatric interventions such as forced hospitalization and medication. He argued that mental health issues should be viewed through the lens of personal responsibility and individual freedom.

Szasz's views have been influential in the field of psychiatry and have sparked ongoing debates about the nature of mental illness and the role of psychiatry in society. While his work has received criticism for its extreme positions, it has also contributed to discussions about the power dynamics between patients and psychiatrists and the potential overreach of psychiatric authority.

It's important to note that Szasz's views on mental illness are controversial, and many mental health professionals and experts disagree with his assertions. The mainstream medical community recognizes mental illness as legitimate health conditions that can be diagnosed and treated using evidence-based approaches.

Thomas Szasz Quotes

1. "If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia."

2. "The proverb warns that, 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But maybe you should if it prevents you from feeding yourself."

3. "The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget."

4. "The myth of mental illness: mental illnesses are not diseases, but are just labels for people whose behavior offends others."

5. "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."

6. "The proverb warns that 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But maybe you should if it prevents you from feeding yourself."

7. "If we don't know what we want, we're liable to find ourselves in the wrong place."

8. "Addiction is a behavior, not a disease, and it is individually and socially self-destructive behavior."

9. "The plague of mankind is the fear and rejection of diversity: monotheism, monarchy, monogamy, and, in our age, monomedicine. The belief that there is only one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to man: members of his own species, bent on ensuring his salvation, security, and sanity."

10. "The system isn't broken, it's fixed."

Please note that these quotes are a reflection of Szasz's perspective and may not necessarily represent the mainstream views of mental health professionals.

Thomas Szasz Quotes About Life

Here are 10 quotes by Thomas Szasz about life:

1. "The self is not something one finds, it is something one creates."

2. "The meaning of life is not to be discovered only after death in some hidden, mysterious realm; on the contrary, it can be found by eating the succulent fruit of the Tree of Life and by living in the here and now as fully and creatively as we can."

3. "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."

4. "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge."

5. "The ultimate goal of life remains the spiritual growth of the individual, the solitary journey to peaks that can be climbed only alone."

6. "Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults."

7. "Civilization is a disease produced by the practice of building societies with rotten material."

8. "The battle for the world is the battle for definitions."

9. "The plague of mankind is the fear and rejection of diversity: monotheism, monarchy, monogamy, and, in our age, monomedicine."

10. "The greatest threat to man's survival, the plague of mankind, is man himself."

These quotes provide insight into Szasz's thoughts on self-creation, the pursuit of knowledge, the importance of individuality, and his critical perspective on societal norms.

Thomas Szasz Quotes