Reminiscences of Thomas Szasz and his ideas

After three decades of friendship with Szasz-born on April 15, 1920, died on September 8, 2012-I eulogized him in the obituary the Times (London) invited me to write. Immediately below is what I submitted: Thomas Szasz, doctor of medicine, emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at SUNY, Syracuse, psychoanalyst and member of the International and American Psychoanalytic Associations, died after a fall at age 92, ending a long publishing career from 1947 to 2011. He became the best known and the most controversial psychiatrist in America and beyond following the publication of his 1961 book, The Myth of Mental Illness, subtitled Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct. Supported by a only a handful but branded in overwhelming numbers of his psychiatric colleagues as a denigrator, a fouler of his own nest, provocateur and traitor, let alone a paranoid schizophrenic, Szasz ignited highly emotional and acrimonious wars of words that are still continuing. In 2004, his follower, psychologist Jeffrey A. Schaler, edited Szasz Under Fire: The Psychiatric Abolitionist Faces his Critics, with Szasz’s own autobiographical sketch and responses to his critics (the quotes and material below are from that book).