In graduate school and undergrad I was exposed to the ideas of psychiatrist Thomas Szasz.
In undergraduate school we read his essay The Myth of Mental Illness. The essay is available online to read for free.
In graduate school we were shown a video of a debate between Szasz and Albert Ellis.
Szasz wrote about 35 books.
He believed that psychiatry medicalizes problems in living and that suicide should be respected as a civil and human right.
He wrote a book called Psychiatric Slavery and believed that civil commitment and the insanity defense form the foundations of psychiatric slavery.
He passed in 2012 at the age of 92.
Szasz will not be forgotten.
The unfortunately obscure fact that I learned from all this is that psychiatry is not authentic medicine. Real medicine deals with real diseases and disorders that can be objectively diagnosed, that can have an objective potential cure, and they are not voted into existence. Homosexuality was once an official psychiatric disorder that was eventually voted out of existence.
