Szasz was a libertarian, and as such, I don't think he thought it to be the business of the state to provide people with mental health services. However, he is to be credited with at least recognizing that deinstutionalization did an injustice to many people. On the other hand, Szasz's own political ideology fitted in rather well with the neoliberalism of many of the people who were pushing for deinstutionalization as part of their campaign to roll back the welfare state.
Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant http://www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math
---------- Original Message ---------- From: Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Thomas Szasz, R.I.P. Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:26:29 -0400
Jim: "While he always felt that it was wrong to institutionalize people against their will, to deinstutionalize patients who had been hospitalized for years, if not decades, was not necessarily doing them any favors."
[WS:] It is not just people who have been institutionalized, but also those who need institutionalization. What you see now is a bunch of people who need services but cannot get any unless they break the law and go to jail. In effect, mental health care has been replaced by prisons in this country. Some freedom indeed.
Institutionalization does not have to be imprisonment, of course, but there are many people who cannot function on their own and need support that only institutional setting can provide. My wife,who works in special education, deals with these cases daily. The lack of services for those who cannot afford to pay for them is among chief complains of people working with this population.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money." ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
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