Paul was drawn to the work of Dr. Thomas Szasz, a psychiatrist who forcefully argued that diagnoses were distractions from the root causes of why people are unwell. Dr. Szasz strongly opposed coercive psychiatry: he believed that mental health was an alienating and pseudoscientific concept forged by an Establishment that sought to control rather than heal. Like Dr. Szasz, Paul believed that illness was a logical response to poverty and societal trauma. That approach got Paul into some trouble in his early career, causing friction between him and other social workers who would eagerly toss
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