Szasz, Thomas (Thomas Szasz)

Men are rewarded and punished not for what they do, but rather for how their acts are defined. This is why men are more interested in justifying themselves than in better behaving themselves.
-- Thomas Szasz

Men are rewarded and punished not for what they do, but rather for how their acts are defined. This is why men are more interested in justifying themselves than in better behaving themselves.
-- Thomas Szasz

Classifying thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as diseases is a logical and semantic error.
-- Thomas Szasz

Among animals, it's 'eat or be eaten'; among humans, it's 'define or be defined'.
-- Thomas Szasz

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 one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to man: members of his own species, bent on ensuring his salvation, security, and sanity.
-- Thomas Szasz

The struggle for definition is veritably the struggle for life itself. In the typical Western two men fight desperately for the possession of a gun that has been thrown to the ground: whoever reaches the weapon first shoots and lives; his adversary is shot and dies. In ordinary life, the struggle is not for guns but for words; whoever first defines the situation is the victor; his adversary, the victim. For example, in the family, husband and wife, mother and child do not get along; who defines whom as troublesome or mentally sick?...[the one] who first seizes the word imposes reality on the other; [the one] who defines thus dominates and lives; and [the one] who is defined is subjugated and may be killed.
-- Thomas Szasz

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 one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to man: members of his own species, bent on ensuring his salvation, security, and sanity.
-- Thomas Szasz

Some people say they haven't yet found themselves. But the self is not something one finds; it is something one creates.
-- Thomas Szasz

Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.
-- Thomas Szasz

When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.
-- Thomas Szasz