A 1958 article in the Columbia Law Review marked the beginning of a sustained challenge to the scientific and moral foundations of modern psychiatry. By arguing that mental illness served as a legal metaphor rather than a biological fact, this Hungarian-born scholar initiated a critique of the medicalization of human behavior that would persist for over five decades.
Academic Foundation and Career
Born in Budapest in 1920, Thomas Szasz moved to the United States in 1938. He earned a Bachelor of Science in physics at the University of Cincinnati before completing his medical training. Following a residency at Cincinnati General Hospital and training at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis between 1951 and 1956, he joined the faculty at the State University of New York in 1956. He attained tenure in 1962, though his tenure was interrupted by two years of service as a psychiatrist with the U.S. Naval Reserve.
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Szasz focused much of his writing on the political nature of psychiatric diagnosis, famously categorizing mental illness as a myth. He argued that the absence of a verified neurological disease rendered the psychiatric diagnosis meaningless. In his 1961 testimony before a United States Senate committee, he contended that involuntary commitment turned physicians into jailers, violating the ethics of the doctor-patient relationship. His influential works included The Myth of Mental Illness and The Manufacture of Madness, both of which attacked what he described as the state-sanctioned social control inherent in psychiatric practice.
Opposition to the Therapeutic State
The conceptual framework of the therapeutic state was a central target of his research. Szasz believed that modern medicine had begun to function as a secularized religion, using medical language to control behavior. In his 1974 book, Ceremonial Chemistry, he compared the treatment of individuals labeled insane or drug-addicted to the historical persecution of scapegoats like witches and gypsies. He consistently maintained that while he opposed coercive psychiatry, he supported psychotherapy conducted between consenting adults.
Later Years and Death
Throughout his career, Szasz received several honors, including the 1973 Humanist of the Year award, the 1974 Martin Buber Award, and the 1998 Rollo May Award. A proponent of the right to die, he ended his own life on September 8, 2012, in Manlius, New York, following a painful spinal-compression fracture. He was 92 years old.
Fast facts
- Born: 1920, Budapest
- Died: 2012, Manlius
- Citizenship: Hungary; United States
- Education: University of Cincinnati
- Notable Book: The Myth of Mental Illness (1961)
- Religion: Atheism
- Languages: English, Hungarian
Questions readers ask
Was Thomas Szasz against all psychiatry?
No. He stated he was not anti-psychiatry but specifically opposed coercive measures, such as involuntary commitment and forced treatment.
What did he mean by the term myth of mental illness?
He argued that diagnoses were value judgments on behavior rather than medical facts, contending that individuals faced problems in living rather than biological diseases.
Achievements
- Held posts at State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse University and New York University
- Fields: psychiatry
