<< and, btw, arguments like that of szaz's were considered *very*
>radical and *very* left a few decades ago. szaz's work, for ex, was
>one of the factors behind changing the classification of
>homosexuality as a psychiatric illness.
>>
Huh? I was always under the impression that Szasz was on the Right, given his preferred publication outlets in Libertarian rags. No argument that another de-institutionalist, R.D. Laing, was a lefty though. Harvard Univ. Press published a good bio of him last year by Daniel Burstein. Also see a critique by the late British Trot, Peter Sedgewick published by Pluto Press. The Salmagundi Reader edited by Robert Boyers has a piece by Sedgewick, if the Pluto Press book is O.P. The novelist, Clancy Sigal, author of a classic novel on the Old Left, Going away, also wrote a satire of Laing, that his lawyers prevented from being published in the UK.
On the American Psychological Association's reclassification of homosexuality around 1973 or so, I hear this is a good book. Psychoanalysis and Male Homosexuality by Kenneth Lewes. This might be good too. An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and the Place of Homosexuality in Modern Society by Jennifer Terry (teaches at Ohio State, btw.)
Michael Pugliese P.S. To follow up on my hunch on Szasz, I looked him up in EBSCO. Articles on or about in Insight, the magazine of the Moonie Washington Times, Reason, the Libertarian rag, Szasz Says So. Subject(s): SZASZ, Thomas; QUOTATIONS; PSYCHIATRISTS Source: Insight, 07/31/2000, Vol. 16 Issue 28, p4, 1/4p Author(s): Goode, Stephen Abstract: Cites some of the witty quotations from psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. Books written by Szasz; Criticism of Szasz to his own profession. AN: 3366958 Crazy, we call them. Subject(s): CRUEL Compassion (Book) Source: New York Times Book Review, 7/10/94, Vol. 143 Issue 49753, p25, 1/7p Author(s): Geiger, H. Jack Abstract: Reviews the book `Cruel Compassion: Psychiatric Control of Society's Unwanted,' by Thomas Szasz. http://www.enabling.org/ia/szasz/publist.html Curing the therapeutic state. (Interview with Jacob Sullum.) Reason, 32: 26-34 (July), 2000
Remembering masturbatory insanity. (!!!) Ideas on Liberty, 50: 35-36 (May), 2000.
Is mental illness a disease? The Freeman, (long established Libertarian journal) 49: 38-39 (November), 1999
Thomas S. Szasz Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility http://www.enabling.org/ia/szasz/