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Faith in Freedom
Libertarian Principles and Psychiatric Practices

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Thomas Szasz

287 Pages
Publication Date: 05/01/04
ISBN: 0-7658-0244-9
Cloth $34.95
May 2004
Transaction Publishers

The libertarian philosophy of freedom is characterized by two fundamental beliefs: self-ownership is a basic right, and initiating violence is a fundamental wrong. Psychiatric practice violates both of these beliefs. It is based on the assumptions that self-ownership--epitomized by suicide--is a medical wrong, and that initiating violence against persons called "mental patients" is a medical right. Thomas Szasz raises fundamental questions about these assumptions. Are self-medication and self-determined death exercises of rightful self-ownership, or manifestations of serious mental diseases? Does deprivation of human liberty under psychiatric auspices constitute odious preventive detention, or is it therapeutically justified hospitalization? Should forced psychiatric drugging be interpreted as assault and battery on the person, or is it medical treatment?

The ethical standards of psychiatric practice mandate that psychiatrists coerce certain innocent persons. Abstaining from such "intervention" is considered malpractice--dereliction of the psychiatrists' "duty to protect." This duty reflects the fact that psychiatry is an arm of coercive apparatus of the state, converting it to an institution Thomas Szasz calls "psychiatric slavery." How should friends of freedom--especially libertarians--deal with the conflict between elementary libertarian principles and prevailing psychiatric practices? In Faith in Freedom: Libertarian Principles and Psychiatric Practices, Szasz addresses this question. After examining the theoretical underpinnings of the problem, with precision, he presents several analytical studies.

Expanding on ideas first developed in the groundbreaking and controversial works The Myth of Mental Illness, Ceremonial Chemistry, and Liberation by Oppression, Faith in Freedom is a strikingly original book, written by one of the foremost champions of psychiatric freedom. It will be of lasting interest to psychiatrists, sociologists, mental health practitioners, and students of political science.

Thomas Szasz is professor of psychiatry emeritus at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, Washington, D.C. He is the author of A Lexicon of Lunacy, Liberation by Oppression, and Words to the Wise, all available from Transaction.

Words to the Wise
A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary
Thomas Szasz

271 Pages
Publication Date: 01/01/04
ISBN: 0-7658-0217-1
Price: $34.95

The human mind abhors the absence of explanation, but full understanding is never possible. Human understanding is likely to be incomplete at best and, more often, utterly fallacious. To make matters worse, it is likely to be supported as truth and wisdom by religious and scientific authority, intellectual fashion and social convention. In Words to the Wise, Thomas Szasz offers a compendium of thoughts, observations, and aphorisms that address our understanding of a broad range of subjects, from birth to death.

In this book, Szasz tackles a problem intrinsic to the human condition. What problem? In the words of the American humorist Josh Billings: “The trouble with people is not what they don’t know but that they know so much that ain’t so.” Many of Thomas Szasz’s books have been devoted to exposing what “ain’t so” about mental illness and psychiatry. Here, Szasz applies the same skeptical spirit to the larger problem of people knowing much that “ain’t so.” About addiction, Szasz observes: “If a person ingests a drug prohibited by legislators and claims that it makes him feel better, that proves he is an addict; if he ingests a drug prescribed by a psychiatrist and claims that it makes him feel better, that proves that mental illness is a biomedical disease.” About beauty: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; ugliness is in the personality of the beholden.” About libertarians: “Libertarians regard liberty as contingent on the right to property; scientists regard disease as contingent on pathological alteration of the body. All libertarians reject the notion of ‘socialist liberty,’ yet many accept the notion of ‘mental disease.’” Or about power: “Many of my critics say I am hostile to medicine and physicians. They are wrong. I am hostile only to the power of the medical profession and of physicians.”

Szasz notes that despite enormous social pressure for a shared perspective on how the world works and how we ought to live, every person’s understanding, not only of himself, but of the world about him, is different from every other person’s. This volume shows how the quest for truth is a never-ending challenge, and must presuppose an honest acceptance of questions, problems, and uncertainty.

Thomas Szasz is professor of psychiatry emeritus at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York and Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute, Washington, D.C.

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