Thomas Szasz has made major contributions to many areas of psychiatric thought. He has correctly decried “diagnosis creep” in American psychiatry and emphasized the potential for political abuse of psychiatric labels. He has correctly asserted that only individuals with a true brain disease should qualify as having a “mental illness” but unfortunately ignores overwhelming evidence that schizophrenia has been proven to be a brain disease. His unchanging views on schizophrenia, despite contemporary scientific evidence, appear increasingly anachronistic and allow critics to dismiss his other contributions, many of which remain valuable.
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