Quotes by Thomas Szasz

Thomas Szasz

Thomas Szasz

American psychiatrist

Lived from: 1920 - 2012

Category: Psychologists Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 15 april 1920 Died: 8 september 2012

  • 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 and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions.
  • The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.
  • Men often treat others worse than they treat themselves, but they rarely treat anyone better. It is the height of folly to expect consideration and decency from a person who mistreats himself.

Quotes 1 till 20 of 33.

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  • A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong.
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  • Men are afraid to rock the boat in which they hope to drift safely through life's currents, when, actually, the boat is stuck on a sandbar. They would be better off to rock the boat and try to shake it loose, or, better still, jump in the water and swim for the shore.
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  • The many faces of intimacy: the Victorians could experience it through correspondence, but not through cohabitation; contemporary men and women can experience it through fornication, but not through friendship.
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  • Addiction, obesity, starvation (anorexia nervosa) are political problems, not psychiatric: each condenses and expresses a contest between the individual and some other person or persons in his environment over the control of the individual's body.
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  • 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 minimum.
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  • Although we may not know it, we have, in our day, witnessed the birth of the Therapeutic State. This is perhaps the major implication of psychiatry as an institution of social control.
    Toward the Therapeutic State
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  • Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.
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  • 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 and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions.
    ― Thomas Szasz
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  • Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.
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  • Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.
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  • He who does not accept and respect those who want to reject life does not truly accept and respect life itself.
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  • If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; if God talks to you, you are a schizophrenic.
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  • In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined.
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  • In the past, men created witches; now they create mental patients.
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  • Involuntary mental hospitalization is like slavery. Refining the standards for commitment is like prettifying the slave plantations. The problem is not how to improve commitment, but how to abolish it.
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  • It is easier to do one's duty to others than to one's self. If you do your duty to others, you are considered reliable. If you do your duty to yourself, you are considered selfish.
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  • Knowledge is gained by learning; trust by doubt; skill by practice; love by love.
    ― Thomas Szasz
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  • Men often treat others worse than they treat themselves, but they rarely treat anyone better. It is the height of folly to expect consideration and decency from a person who mistreats himself.
    ― Thomas Szasz
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  • 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 treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less.
    ― Thomas Szasz
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  • 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 is the name of a concept whose purpose is to obscure the obvious.
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Thomas Szasz?

The two most famous quotes from Thomas Szasz are:

  • "A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong."
  • "Men are afraid to rock the boat in which they hope to drift safely through life's currents, when, actually, the boat is stuck on a sandbar. They would be better off to rock the boat and try to shake it loose, or, better still, jump in the water and swim for the shore."

When did Thomas Szasz live?

Thomas Szasz was born in 1920 and died in the year 2012.