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.
Thomas SzaszRead
Labeling a child as mentally ill is stigmatization, not diagnosis. Giving a child a psychiatric drug is poisoning, not treatment.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the practice of labeling children with mental illnesses and administering medication, suggesting it causes more harm than good.
Thomas Szasz's quote raises important ethical concerns about the way society treats children diagnosed with mental health issues. He argues that labeling children with mental illnesses stigmatizes them rather than offering a proper understanding and support, and that prescribing psychiatric medication may inflict more harm—akin to poisoning—rather than providing genuine treatment. This perspective calls for a reevaluation of how mental health is approached in children, emphasizing the need for compassionate care rather than categorization and medication.
Themes
Mental IllnessStigmaTreatmentChildrenPsychiatry
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about mental health policies, this quote can highlight the importance of careful consideration before labeling children.
More from Thomas Szasz
All quotes →Classifying thoughts, feelings and behaviors as diseases is a logical and semantic error, like classifying whale as fish.
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Addiction, obesity, starvation (anorexia nervosa) are political problems, not psychiatric: each condense 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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In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients.
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Self-respect is to the soul as oxygen is to the body. Deprive a person of oxygen, and you kill his body; deprive him of self-respect and you kill his spirit.
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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.
Thomas SzaszRead
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