Practicing Szasz

Abstract

Thomas Szasz died on September 8, 2012. With his death, many of us, not enough, are left with deep concern about his legacy and the continuing influence of his ideas. This one man’s ideas have directly or indirectly influenced my ongoing work as a psychologist. Specific areas that I will discuss below include power and language, issues of coercion, and psychiatry and the law. I will also discuss deeper and subtler influences regarding language, as well as the effect of Szasz as a model of precision and clarity, persistence, and courage. Finally, given that I am a professional counselor, and that Szasz worked for decades as a psychoanalyst, I want to discuss his ideas about counseling per se and how they have affected my own work. I hope that my experience will have a small positive effect in keeping alive and in play the profoundly important ideas of this great man.