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Film Review: The Last Interview of

Thomas Szasz: Page 2 of 2 PSYCHIATRIC TIMES

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News | October 22, 2013 | Film And Book Reviews, Couch in Crisis
By Zimri S. Yaseen, MD

Indeed, the perplexing power of Szasz’s epistemological problem with “mental illness”
is obscured at times by its complex, often tenuous, connection to the libertarianism
that motivates it. This is not to say that his libertarianism is not powerfully thought- RELATED
provoking in its own right and must give any psychiatrist pause when pursuing ARTICLES
involuntary commitment or treatment over objection. Even if one is ultimately to
disagree with Szasz (as, in practice at least, almost all psychiatrists do), such pause is
an invaluable burden.

Beyond these matters, which are readily available in Szasz’s writings, Singer’s film
About Us
allows us to meet Szasz near the end of his life. I cannot help but feel that the hard Confusing
Archives
edges of his arguments serve as guards against survivor guilt that could otherwise Psychosis
Current Issue/PDF
cripple a man of evidently deep, tender, and curious humanity. (Szasz emigrated to the with
Imagination Print Subscription
US in 1938 to study medicine, wittingly escaping the storm of fascism already Enews/Online Access
overtaking central Europe.) Now’s the Clinical Scales
Time for

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 Time for
Throughout the interview, we find Szasz demands that the discussion be on his terms. the Bio- Media Kit/Advertising
“I never saw anyone before talking to them myself,” he explains. “My secretary didn’t Psycho- Guide to Authors
make any appointments.” To explore this, Singer plays a prospective patient: “Help me Social- Editorial Board
EnvironmentalReader Advisory Board
to want to live again,” to which Szasz replies, “That’s not the kind of thing I can do. I Model Contact Us
would not make an appointment.” A pause ensues and, slightly frustrated, Singer tries
What Was
again: “Okay. I’ve heard, Dr Szasz, that you’re a very good psychiatrist and I just don’t
Wrong
feel I can live this way anymore; can you help me?” Szasz responds, “Perhaps. Okay. with the
We can have a conversation; come and see me.” The transcript reads perhaps as Las Vegas
harsh, but in Szasz’s voice there is something ameliorating. When he says, “Come Mass
Murderer?
and see me,” he does not sound clinical. Rather, one hears a genuine and fully willed
invitation. After Las
Vegas,
What is the difference between Singer’s first, rebuffed, approach and his second, The
Danger of
accepted one, besides the compliment to Szasz? In the first, Singer lacks agency. He
Copy-Cat
positions himself as seeking rescue. In the second, he seems similarly distressed but Killers
he takes ownership of his choice to seek Szasz’s help. Szasz demands ownership of
Accentuate
his own choices; he decides whether he will see someone, but he demands that the
ownership of choice of others as well. “The goal,” he says, “is to assume more Positive in
responsibility and therefore more liberty and more control over one’s own life.” Psychiatric
Care
Szasz’s fierce independence and his symmetric insistence on the responsibility of
others for their own fate read to me as a defense against the emotional burden of
having escaped the Holocaust. Indeed, that fierce independence seems to be one that
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he held to the death. Singer asks, “If you were dependent on someone else,
caretakers . . . would you think . . . of killing yourself?” Szasz pauses and smiles
before replying, “Off the record.”
SPONSORED
Should Szasz’s alleged suicide, then, be seen as a courageous adherence to the
principles by which he lived or a symptom of a pathological avoidance of RESOURCES
helplessness? Dr Szasz might reply that either way, it was his choice.
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DISCLOSURES
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Dr Yaseen is Attending Psychiatrist at the Family Center for Bipolar Disorder, an
affiliate of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. He reports no conflicts of

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 interest concerning the subject matter of this article.
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REFERENCES

1. Schaler J. Kaddish for Thomas Szasz. The Thomas S. Szasz, MD Cybercenter for Featured Jobs
Liberty and Responsibility. http://www.szasz.com/szaszdeath.htm. Accessed October
17, 2013. Resources
2. Carey B. Dr. Thomas Szasz, Psychiatrist Who Led Movement Against His Field,
Dies at 92. New York Times. September 11, 2012.
www.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/health/dr-thomas-szasz-psychiatrist-who-led- Traditions Behavioral
movement-against-his-field-dies-at-92.html. Accessed October 17, 2013. Health - FT
3. Szasz TS. The myth of mental illness. Am Psychol. 1960;15:113-118. Psychiatrists
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Interesting film review ! Opportunities - Come

Sergio Ivan @ Thu, 2013-10-31 15:30 reply Work and Live in the
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the Jersey Shore!
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[The Editors have edited portions of the comment posted here by "David
Petropoulos" that were antithetical to constructive dialogue.]

David @ Thu, 2013-10-24 08:12 reply

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