Szaszian Studies

Dr. Thomas Szasz was a psychiatrist and professor emeritus at a university in New York. He passed away in 2012 at the age of about 92. He was a prolific writer. He wrote somewhere between about 15 and 40 books. The purpose here is to examine his ideas and ways of thinking and to either discredit them or promote them.

He advocated abolishing psychiatric slavery. He wrote a book Psychiatric Slavery about this topic. Psychiatric slavery includes the insanity defense and civil commitment. The insanity defense is a legal defense which seeks and sometimes successfully diverts law breaking individuals from the criminal justice system, and instead diverts them to the psychiatric system. Civil commitment involves locking someone who is supposedly a danger to their own self or others up until they are deemed to no longer be a danger to their own self or others. Dr. Szasz advocated the abolishing of both of these legal entities.

It seems that he advocated abolishing the insanity defense on the grounds that the insanity defense is invalid since insanity is not something that anyone can prove or disprove ultimately. He makes the case in his books that psychiatrists are arrogant for claiming that they can deem anyone insane and not responsible for their actions. His book Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences he makes the case as to why the insanity defense should be abolished. More than just one of his books makes the case.

Libertarians should support abolishing psychiatric slavery.

Psychiatric slavery is not good.



Help support abolishing the insanity defense and civil commitment, please.