Thomas Szasz (was Re: Anti-Depressants)

Gordon Fitch gcf at panix.com
Thu Aug 31 07:45:35 PDT 2000


furuhashi.1 at osu.edu writes:
> << 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.

Michael Pugliese:
> Huh? I was always under the impression that Szasz was on the Right, given
> his preferred publication outlets in Libertarian rags. ...

It's curious that personal autonomy is found, even assigned, to the Right, given that the Right is the party of authority, power, status, private wealth, order, and conformity, the friends of the King of France, while the Left is the party of freedom and equality. How'd that happen, anyway?

Because autonomy is what Szasz is on about, mostly -- the autonomy of persons in the face of institutions, for example to ingest what drugs they please. Conceded a lot of what he says is silly -- that's not the issue I'm raising.



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