“Dr. Szasz was one of those rare individuals who could not be silent when liberty was threatened.”
— Congressman Ron Paul
“There are few of us who have devoted our entire lives to fighting man’s inhumanity to man. Thomas Szasz was one of those few and now joins the rest of those freedom fighters who belong to history.”
— Dr. Keith Hoeller, Editor, Existential Psychology & Psychiatry
“One of the smartest and most thorough defenders of autonomy and liberty of our time.”
— Brian Doherty, Senior Editor, Reason Magazine
“Throughout his long life, he did not simply fight the good fight, he fought a truly magnificent fight.”
— Professor Richard E. Vatz, Towson University
“Arguably, Szasz has had more impact on the actual practice of psychiatry in this country than anyone since Freud.”
“No one attacks loose-thinking and folly with half the precision and zest of Thomas Szasz.”
“Szasz is a brilliant debater…. He can turn a topic as somber as insanity and its social context into a book that is extraordinarily entertaining.”
“Stripping away centuries of self-serving propaganda written by psychiatry’s acolytes, Dr. Thomas Szasz gives us a radically new look at the history of the world’s most dangerous political religions. From the eighteenth century’s ‘trade in lunacy’ to the nineteenth century’s ‘insane asylums’ to the twentieth century’s ‘snake pits’ to the twenty-first century’s ‘outpatient commitment,’ Szasz gives us a radically different perspective on the major episodes in the history of psychiatry.”
“Dr. Szasz makes a real contribution by alerting us to the abuses—existing and potential—of human rights inherent in enlightened mental health programs and procedures. He points out, with telling examples, shortcomings in commitment procedures, inadequacies in the protections afforded patients in mental institutions and the dangers of over-reliance on psychiatric expert opinion by judges and juries.”
“Bit by ‘barbarous and bizarre’ bit, Thomas Szasz dismantles psychiatry’s rickety scaffolding, exposing over two centuries of physical torture and tortured logic. Professor Szasz takes the necessary analytical and empirical solvents to this state-empowered fraternity of sorcerers. He also supplies the only salve for the psychiatric violence he correctly dubs ‘psychiatric slavery’: abolition: Now, ‘Let the sunshine in.'”
“Throughout his distinguished career…Thomas S. Szasz has steadfastly defended the values of humanism and personal autonomy against all who would constrain human freedom with shackles formed out of conceptual confusion, error, and willful deception.”
“Tom Szasz is one of the most compassionate and loving persons I have ever known, and I have known and know many great and good people in my life. I say this because many people have been so critical of him throughout his professional career. That is the price he must pay for the work he has done. It takes a brave person to withstand such criticism…. Here is a man who has demonstrated uncompromising commitment to family, honesty, truth, and liberty throughout his life.”
“Thomas Szasz remains unique among contemporary observers of the social, ethical, and political implications of psychiatry: every argument he makes, and each word he chooses, are deserving of our closest attention.”
“It is no exaggeration to state that Szasz’s work raises major social issues which deserve the attention of policy-makers and indeed of all informed and socially conscious Americans…. Quite probably he has done more than any other man to alert the American public to the potential dangers of an excessively psychiatrized society.”
“Thomas Szasz…has been one of the few writers who have helped keep me sane in this insane business.”
“Szasz helps people recognize how many issues portrayed solely as questions of mental health are actually questions of liberty. He has helped open the eyes of generations of Americans to the fact that merely wearing a white coat doesn’t make a person trustworthy enough to shackle other people.”
“For decades, Thomas Szasz has publicly challenged the excesses that obscure reason. The Medicalization of Everyday Life offers a no-nonsense perspective on prevailing dogma. It is only through clear vision that intelligent choices can be made. Required reading for all professionals in health care fields, and all those who are subject to their unwitting prejudices.”
“Thomas Szasz is the preeminent critic of psychiatry in the world.”
“Every defender of the therapeutic state should be strapped down and made to answer the questions Dr. Szasz poses about the psychiatric industry’s mission creep.”
Next: Szasz on Psychiatry as a Human Rights Abuse
Back to Main: CCHR Co-founder Dr. Thomas Szasz Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus