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'Myth of Mental Illness' author, psychiatrist Thomas Szasz dies

Szaszt

Thomas Szasz MD in the garden at his Manlius home in 2001. That year, Dr. Szasz received an honorary doctorate from Upstate Medical University and was the commencement speaker. Photograph by Susan Kahn for Upstate Medical University.


Thomas Szasz MD, one of the most controversial thinkers in behavioral science and a professor of psychiatry emeritus at Upstate, died at his home in Manlius on Saturday at the age of 92. He was the author of the provocative "The Myth of Mental Illness," published in 1961 as an argument that psychiatry threatened individual liberties through medical labeling, involuntary commitment, and forced treatment.

The world-famous psychiatrist was the author of 20 books and more than 400 articles, and he was the subject of news coverage in a variety of publications. Not all of his Upstate colleagues agreed with his views, but they respected Szasz, who retired in 1990 but continued to teach and write.

"One of my fondest recollections was a teaching session Dr. Szasz gave to my forensic fellows," recalls James Knoll IV, MD. "The session was scheduled for only one hour, bu the lively and intellectually crisp Szasz, at age 92, was fully prepared to go for two hours, and did just that without any decrement in enthusiasm. In fact, the energy in the room seemed to gain momentum. He was impressive -- thoughtful, rational, and intellectual. He spoke with a vast perspective and knowledge of history and literature, but in a way that was sincere and not the slightest bit pretentious."

In a July 200o interview in the magazine, Reason, Szasz was asked what he believed were his major contributions over his career. His answer: "It's really two very simple propositions: that there is no mental illness, and that if you are incarcerated in a mental hospital, you are in prison. You are not treated or cured.

"Now as far as the greatest impact, there's no question that 'the myth of mental illness' and the idea of the therapeutic state are terms and concepts that are widely copied, and often used in ways quite different than I have used them," Szasz continued. "There's a third idea that hasn't caught on quite as much, though I've seen it used in English publications: 'pharmacracy," which I used in 'Ceremonial Chemistry.' It refers to the substitution of medical controls for legal and religious controls. We are pharmacratizing everything, including the control of unruly children. Attention deficit disorder is a perfect example of pharmacratic control of a social problem: how to educate children."

Robert Gregory MD, interim chair of the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences department, notified the faculty of Szasz's passing with a note that ended by saying, “It is my personal hope that as our field moves forward, that our department can remember the lessons of Dr. Szasz, maintaining the ability to question our practices in a spirit of intellectual inquiry, and remember that our primary responsibility is to relieve the suffering of the individual while maintaining human dignity.”

Gregory said in a recent conversation, Szasz had told him that he felt he had lost the battle for individual freedoms and felt increasingly alienated from modern psychiatry.  Szasz pointed to the vast expansion of psychiatric diagnoses, the move toward protocol-driven care, and the expansion of commitment laws to include sex offenders.

Born in Hungary in 1920, Dr. Szasz emigrated to the United States in 1938 and graduated from the University of Cincinnati with an undergraduate degree in physics in 1941. He was valedictorian of the medical school three years later. He completed a medical internship at Boston City Hospital and a psychiatry residency at the University of Chicago before training as an analyst in the avant-garde Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Then he served at the United States Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. before becoming a professor at Upstate in 1956.

Szasz received several honorary degrees and awards, including the Humanist of the Year, Jefferson Award from the American Institute of Public Service, Mencken Award from the Free Press Association and the George Washington Award from the American Hungarian Foundation. And, the Center for Independent Thought created the Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties.

Read Dr. Szasz's obituary.


Read The New York Times obituary for Dr. Szasz.

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