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
Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Happiness is often viewed as a subjective and elusive state, shifting in perception between generations.
This quote by Thomas Szasz reflects on the often transient and subjective nature of happiness, suggesting that it is a concept that people frequently misattribute to others rather than recognizing its personal and individual essence. By indicating that adults view happiness in relation to children and vice versa, Szasz highlights how society's understanding of happiness can be flawed and misaligned, as it is often projected onto others rather than being truly understood within oneself.
Themes
HappinessImaginaryConditionPerceptionAdultsChildren
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about parenting, you might reference this quote to illustrate how perceptions of happiness differ across generations.
More from Thomas Szasz
All quotes →Classifying thoughts, feelings and behaviors as diseases is a logical and semantic error, like classifying whale as fish.
Thomas SzaszRead
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.
Thomas SzaszRead
In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients.
Thomas SzaszRead
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.
Thomas SzaszRead
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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