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21_4_851–867
Psychiatr. Pol. 2021; 55(4): 851–867Jan Domaradzki
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Thomas Szasz: The uncompromising rebel and critic of psychiatry
Summary
April 2020 marks what would have been the hundredth birthday of Professor Thomas Stephen Szasz, who passed away in 2012. This year was also the 60thanniversary of the first publication of his iconoclastic thesis on the “myth of mental illness.” In the present paper, Szasz’s main views on mental illness and modern psychiatry are summarized. By showing the origins of Szasz’s ideas in particular, it describes the following topics: Szasz’s distinction between bodily disease and mental illness, his preoccupation with the progressive medicalization of everyday life, his description of psychiatry as an institution of social control, his critique of the therapeutic state, i.e., the alliance between psychiatry and the state, and his deliberations on liberty, personal freedom and responsibility. While addressing Szasz’s main critics, the paper attempts to show the influence of Szasz’s concept on today’s psychiatry and stresses that despite well-deserved criticism he expressed some of the epistemological and ethical problems of modern psychiatry better than anyone else, which makes his legacy still important for the mental health practitioners of today.
ISSN 0033-2674 (PRINT)
ISSN 2391-5854 (ONLINE)
Psychiatria Polska
is an Open Access journal:
Creative Commons: CC-BY
SHERPA RoMEO: Blue
is an Open Access journal:
Creative Commons: CC-BY
SHERPA RoMEO: Blue
Zadanie finansowane
w ramach umowy
nr 739/P-DUN/2018
ze środków MNiSW
przeznaczonych
na działalność
upowszechniającą naukę
KRW PTP dziękuje
firmie PPL – Koral – J.Koral sp.j.
za wsparcie finansowe
udzielone w 2020 roku
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