The Myth of Mental Illness Quotes

“It taught me, at an early age, that being wrong can be dangerous, but being right, when society regards the majority’s falsehood as truth, could be fatal.”
― Thomas Stephen Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

“It seems to me that-at least in our scientific theories of behavior-we have failed to accept the simple fact that human relations are inherently fraught with difficulties and that to make them even relatively harmonious requires much patience and hard work.”
― Thomas Stephen Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

“Anyone who seeks to help others—whether by means of religion or by means of medicine—must eschew the use of force.”
― Thomas Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

“The fact that atomic energy is used in warfare does not make international conflicts problems in physics; likewise, the fact that the brain is used in human behavior does not make moral and personal conflicts problems in medicine.”
― Thomas Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

“The claim that “mental illnesses are diagnosable disorders of the brain” is not based on scientific research; it is a lie, an error, or a naive revival of the somatic premise of the long-discredited humoral theory of disease. My claim that mental illnesses are fictitious illnesses is also not based on scientific research; it rests on the materialist-scientific definition of illness as a pathological alteration of cells, tissues, and organs. If we accept this scientific definition of disease, then it follows that mental illness is a metaphor, and that asserting that view is asserting an analytic truth, not subject to empirical falsification.”
― Thomas Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

“It is conceivable, of course, that significant physicochemical disturbances will be found in some “mental patients” and in some “conditions” now labeled “mental illnesses.” But this does not mean that all so-called mental diseases have biological “causes,” for the simple reason that it has become customary to use the term “mental illness” to stigmatize, and thus control, those persons whose behavior offends society—or the psychiatrist making the “diagnosis.”
― Thomas Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

“The primary problem with modern psychiatry is its reduction of mental illness to bodily dysfunction. Objectification of those identified as mentally ill, by insisting on the somatic nature of their illness, may apparently simplify matters and help protect those trying to provide care from the pain experienced by those needing support. But psychiatric assessment too often fails to appreciate personal and social precursors of mental illness by avoiding or not taking account of such psychosocial considerations. Mainstream psychiatry acts on the somatic hypothesis of mental illness to the detriment of understanding people's problems.”
― Thomas Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

“In short, hysteria is a type of language in which communication is effected by means of pictures (or iconic signs), instead of by means of words (or conventional signs). Hysterical language thus resembles other picture languages, such as charades. Those who want to deal with so-called hysterical patients must therefore learn not how to diagnose or treat them, but how to understand their special idiom and how to translate it into ordinary language.”
― Thomas Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct