Best Thomas Szasz Sayings
- People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one… Creates
- The proverb warns that 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself. Bite
- A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong. Adult
- Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for… Formerly
- Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions… Certainty
- In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined. Animal
- In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients. Create
- Two wrongs don't make a right, but they make a good excuse. Businessman
- Mental illness, of course, is not literally a 'thing' - or physical object - and hence it can 'exist' only in the same sort of… Bipolar
- If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; if God talks to you, you are a schizophrenic. Dead
- Permissiveness is the principle of treating children as if they were adults; and the tactic of making sure they never reach that stage. Adult
- There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography. Autobiography
- He who does not accept and respect those who want to reject life does not truly accept and respect life itself. Accept
- There is no such thing as mental illness, hence also no such thing as psychotherapy. Illness
- When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him. Drinking
- Individual psychotherapy - that is, engaging a distressed fellow human in a disciplined conversation and human relationship - requires that the therapist have the proper… Advice
- No further evidence is needed to show that 'mental illness' is not the name of a biological condition whose nature awaits to be elucidated, but… Awaits
- A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power. Authority
- 'Psychotherapy' is a private, confidential conversation that has nothing to do with illness, medicine, or healing. Confidential
- Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful… Analyst
- Psychiatric expert testimony: mendacity masquerading as medicine. Expert
- Adulthood is the ever-shrinking period between childhood and old age. It is the apparent aim of modern industrial societies to reduce this period to a… Adulthood
- Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults. Adult
- The plague of mankind is the fear and rejection of diversity: monotheism, monarchy, monogamy and, in our age, monomedicine. The belief that there is only… Affair
- Classifying thoughts, feelings and behaviors as diseases is a logical and semantic error, like classifying whale as fish. Behavior