Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less. Thomas Szasz
Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions. Thomas Szasz
If you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. Thomas Szasz
Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults. Thomas Szasz
The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic – in short, the closest thing to a genuine panacea – known to medical science is work. Thomas Szasz
Men are afraid to rock the boat in which they hope to drift safely through life’s currents, when, actually, the boat is stuck on a sandbar. They would be better off to rock the boat and try to shake it loose, or, better still, jump in the water and swim for the shore. Thomas Szasz
There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography. Thomas Szasz
It is easier to do one’s duty to others than to one’s self. If you do your duty to others, you are considered reliable. If you do your duty to yourself, you are considered selfish. Thomas Szasz
Psychiatric expert testimony: mendacity masquerading as medicine. Thomas Szasz
Permissiveness is the principle of treating children as if they were adults; and the tactic of making sure they never reach that stage. Thomas Szasz
When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him. Thomas Szasz
People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds; it is something one creates. Thomas Szasz
Men often treat others worse than they treat themselves, but they rarely treat anyone better. It is the height of folly to expect consideration and decency from a person who mistreats himself. Thomas Szasz
The many faces of intimacy: the Victorians could experience it through correspondence, but not through cohabitation; contemporary men and women can experience it through fornication, but not through friendship. Thomas Szasz
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 Szasz
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 Szasz
Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is. Thomas Szasz