*Fringe* Doctors

[Guest guest]

http://www.oikos.org/Szasz.htm

[Guest guest]

For Immediate Release

For Release October 29, 2001

Contact: n

Journalist Nat Hentoff and psychiatrist Ron Leifer, M.D. receive

Szasz Civil Liberties Award

New York--The Eleventh Annual S. Szasz Award for Outstanding

Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties has been awarded to

renowned columnist and author Nat Hentoff. The professional award

will be given to Ron Leifer, M.D., a psychiatrist in private practice

in Ithaca, New York. The Award is sponsored by the Center for

Independent Thought in New York City.

For decades, Nat Hentoff has been a vocal and unwavering defender of

civil liberties, decrying, without partisanship, attempts to abrogate

the Constitutional guarantees of free speech, privacy, due process,

and equal protection under the law. His articles on these topics have

appeared in innumerable publications, and he continues to write

regular columns for The Village Voice, The Washington Times, and

Jewish World Review. Hentoff is the author of 30 books on a variety

of topics, most recently Living the Bill of Rights: How to be an

Authentic American (University of California Press, 2001), and The

Nat Hentoff Reader (Da Capo Press, 2001).

Hentoff's copious honors and awards include the American Bar

Association Silver Gavel Award, the Zenger Award for Freedom of the

Press, and the National Press Foundation Award for Distinguished

Contributions to Journalism.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Ron Leifer has championed Szasz's

views on mental illness, liberty, and responsibility. He has done

this in his private practice as psychiatrist, in his writing and

teaching, and in his psychiatric testimonies. The Szasz Award

recognizes his commitment to the cause of protecting the dignity of

human beings against the threats posed by institutional psychiatry

and the therapeutic state.

Leifer was expelled from academic psychiatry for defending

Szasz, then a colleague, against a hostile administration at

Syracuse's Upstate Medical Center. He went on to study Buddhism with

various Indian and Tibetan teachers, and helped organize the first

KTD Buddhism and Psychotherapy Conference in New York City in 1987.

He is currently a member of the visiting faculty of the Barre Center

For Buddhist Studies and is the founder of The Ithaca Dharma Society.

Dr. Leifer has lectured widely on Buddhism, psychiatry, and

psychotherapy, and is the author of two books--The Happiness Project:

Transforming the Three Poisons Which are the Causes of the Suffering

We Inflict on Ourselves and Others (Snow Lion Press, 1997) and In the

Name of Mental Health: The Social Functions of Psychiatry (Science

House, 1969)--and more than fifty articles on a wide variety of

psychiatric issues. He has lately turned his attention fully to the

interplay between Buddhism and psychotherapy.

Last year's Szasz Award was given to law professor J.

. Past winners include psychologist and professor A.

Schaler and Institute of Justice attorneys " Chip " Mellor and

Clint Bolick, D. Kephart, Kopel and Blackman for

their book No More Wacos, Bettina Bien Graves for lifetime

achievement, computer-privacy champion Philip Zimmermann, property-

rights scholar Epstein, British economist Bauer, author

Karl Hess, investigative journalist Bovard, ,

founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, and E. Vatz,

a professor of rhetoric at Towson University.

[Guest guest]

For Immediate Release

For Release October 29, 2001

Contact: n

Journalist Nat Hentoff and psychiatrist Ron Leifer, M.D. receive

Szasz Civil Liberties Award

New York--The Eleventh Annual S. Szasz Award for Outstanding

Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties has been awarded to

renowned columnist and author Nat Hentoff. The professional award

will be given to Ron Leifer, M.D., a psychiatrist in private practice

in Ithaca, New York. The Award is sponsored by the Center for

Independent Thought in New York City.

For decades, Nat Hentoff has been a vocal and unwavering defender of

civil liberties, decrying, without partisanship, attempts to abrogate

the Constitutional guarantees of free speech, privacy, due process,

and equal protection under the law. His articles on these topics have

appeared in innumerable publications, and he continues to write

regular columns for The Village Voice, The Washington Times, and

Jewish World Review. Hentoff is the author of 30 books on a variety

of topics, most recently Living the Bill of Rights: How to be an

Authentic American (University of California Press, 2001), and The

Nat Hentoff Reader (Da Capo Press, 2001).

Hentoff's copious honors and awards include the American Bar

Association Silver Gavel Award, the Zenger Award for Freedom of the

Press, and the National Press Foundation Award for Distinguished

Contributions to Journalism.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Ron Leifer has championed Szasz's

views on mental illness, liberty, and responsibility. He has done

this in his private practice as psychiatrist, in his writing and

teaching, and in his psychiatric testimonies. The Szasz Award

recognizes his commitment to the cause of protecting the dignity of

human beings against the threats posed by institutional psychiatry

and the therapeutic state.

Leifer was expelled from academic psychiatry for defending

Szasz, then a colleague, against a hostile administration at

Syracuse's Upstate Medical Center. He went on to study Buddhism with

various Indian and Tibetan teachers, and helped organize the first

KTD Buddhism and Psychotherapy Conference in New York City in 1987.

He is currently a member of the visiting faculty of the Barre Center

For Buddhist Studies and is the founder of The Ithaca Dharma Society.

Dr. Leifer has lectured widely on Buddhism, psychiatry, and

psychotherapy, and is the author of two books--The Happiness Project:

Transforming the Three Poisons Which are the Causes of the Suffering

We Inflict on Ourselves and Others (Snow Lion Press, 1997) and In the

Name of Mental Health: The Social Functions of Psychiatry (Science

House, 1969)--and more than fifty articles on a wide variety of

psychiatric issues. He has lately turned his attention fully to the

interplay between Buddhism and psychotherapy.

Last year's Szasz Award was given to law professor J.

. Past winners include psychologist and professor A.

Schaler and Institute of Justice attorneys " Chip " Mellor and

Clint Bolick, D. Kephart, Kopel and Blackman for

their book No More Wacos, Bettina Bien Graves for lifetime

achievement, computer-privacy champion Philip Zimmermann, property-

rights scholar Epstein, British economist Bauer, author

Karl Hess, investigative journalist Bovard, ,

founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, and E. Vatz,

a professor of rhetoric at Towson University.

[Guest guest]

For Immediate Release

For Release October 29, 2001

Contact: n

Journalist Nat Hentoff and psychiatrist Ron Leifer, M.D. receive

Szasz Civil Liberties Award

New York--The Eleventh Annual S. Szasz Award for Outstanding

Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties has been awarded to

renowned columnist and author Nat Hentoff. The professional award

will be given to Ron Leifer, M.D., a psychiatrist in private practice

in Ithaca, New York. The Award is sponsored by the Center for

Independent Thought in New York City.

For decades, Nat Hentoff has been a vocal and unwavering defender of

civil liberties, decrying, without partisanship, attempts to abrogate

the Constitutional guarantees of free speech, privacy, due process,

and equal protection under the law. His articles on these topics have

appeared in innumerable publications, and he continues to write

regular columns for The Village Voice, The Washington Times, and

Jewish World Review. Hentoff is the author of 30 books on a variety

of topics, most recently Living the Bill of Rights: How to be an

Authentic American (University of California Press, 2001), and The

Nat Hentoff Reader (Da Capo Press, 2001).

Hentoff's copious honors and awards include the American Bar

Association Silver Gavel Award, the Zenger Award for Freedom of the

Press, and the National Press Foundation Award for Distinguished

Contributions to Journalism.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Ron Leifer has championed Szasz's

views on mental illness, liberty, and responsibility. He has done

this in his private practice as psychiatrist, in his writing and

teaching, and in his psychiatric testimonies. The Szasz Award

recognizes his commitment to the cause of protecting the dignity of

human beings against the threats posed by institutional psychiatry

and the therapeutic state.

Leifer was expelled from academic psychiatry for defending

Szasz, then a colleague, against a hostile administration at

Syracuse's Upstate Medical Center. He went on to study Buddhism with

various Indian and Tibetan teachers, and helped organize the first

KTD Buddhism and Psychotherapy Conference in New York City in 1987.

He is currently a member of the visiting faculty of the Barre Center

For Buddhist Studies and is the founder of The Ithaca Dharma Society.

Dr. Leifer has lectured widely on Buddhism, psychiatry, and

psychotherapy, and is the author of two books--The Happiness Project:

Transforming the Three Poisons Which are the Causes of the Suffering

We Inflict on Ourselves and Others (Snow Lion Press, 1997) and In the

Name of Mental Health: The Social Functions of Psychiatry (Science

House, 1969)--and more than fifty articles on a wide variety of

psychiatric issues. He has lately turned his attention fully to the

interplay between Buddhism and psychotherapy.

Last year's Szasz Award was given to law professor J.

. Past winners include psychologist and professor A.

Schaler and Institute of Justice attorneys " Chip " Mellor and

Clint Bolick, D. Kephart, Kopel and Blackman for

their book No More Wacos, Bettina Bien Graves for lifetime

achievement, computer-privacy champion Philip Zimmermann, property-

rights scholar Epstein, British economist Bauer, author

Karl Hess, investigative journalist Bovard, ,

founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, and E. Vatz,

a professor of rhetoric at Towson University.

[Guest guest]

" What also remains unmentioned in debates on drug legalization

is that all loyal liberal-despotic psychiatrists--Grinspoon among

them--believe in forcing some of the most toxic drugs in our

pharmacopoeia down the throats of the most helpless people in the

country, rationalizing coercive drugging as the 'drug treatment of

psychotics.' Grinspoon never suggests a harmfulness tax for Haldol. "

Szasz, Our Right to Drugs: The Case for a Free Market, p.108.

[Guest guest]

" What also remains unmentioned in debates on drug legalization

is that all loyal liberal-despotic psychiatrists--Grinspoon among

them--believe in forcing some of the most toxic drugs in our

pharmacopoeia down the throats of the most helpless people in the

country, rationalizing coercive drugging as the 'drug treatment of

psychotics.' Grinspoon never suggests a harmfulness tax for Haldol. "

Szasz, Our Right to Drugs: The Case for a Free Market, p.108.

[Guest guest]

" What also remains unmentioned in debates on drug legalization

is that all loyal liberal-despotic psychiatrists--Grinspoon among

them--believe in forcing some of the most toxic drugs in our

pharmacopoeia down the throats of the most helpless people in the

country, rationalizing coercive drugging as the 'drug treatment of

psychotics.' Grinspoon never suggests a harmfulness tax for Haldol. "

Szasz, Our Right to Drugs: The Case for a Free Market, p.108.

[Guest guest]

Tommy,

I'm not trying to start a battle with you on Szasz, as I said I was aware he made some significant contributions in regards to policy and societal issues involving mental health. I'm also not a psychologist so even though it is my major in college there are obviously people who are far more knowledgeable in all aspects of it. I think Dr. Stan Katz summed it up well when he stated that Szasz was on target with his concern over our growing culture of victimhood, but he inappropriately neglected much of the dark reality of mental illness. When I say from time to time that I've spoken to professionals in the field, etc., I obviously haven't attempted any field research regarding who thinks what of whom. But I do get to speak to a number of professionals across the spectrum of psychology/psychiatry and when there is a general consensus in what they say, I assume there to be at least a fair amount of truth in it. As far as Schaler, much of that is my own opinion, although the mention of his name has evoked a few chuckles. The webpage you linked to was interesting and I wasn't aware of the APA award he received, but again the APA is more concerned with public education programs and, in this type of case, awarding those who have made a significant contribution in those areas. I just pulled out three of my psych textbooks, all 600+ pages, and one had a solitary reference to Szasz in the index. Neither of the other two mentioned him at all.

I would agree that the concept of "behavioral health" is mostly concerned with attaching diagnoses to people whose behavior poses a cost to others. However, with the progress being made in the real research (not, for instance, charting how long it takes a lab rat to mature out of its coke habit), to downplay the real problems seems simply cruel to me. While Szasz reviewed much of the existing research and drew some startling conclusions at the time, I can't find any reference him relative to any of the significant developments made in the clinical aspects of the field (as opposed to social.)

And to deny the existence of conditions which have been more than adequately documented does seem a bit "fringe" to me.

[Guest guest]

Tommy,

I'm not trying to start a battle with you on Szasz, as I said I was aware he made some significant contributions in regards to policy and societal issues involving mental health. I'm also not a psychologist so even though it is my major in college there are obviously people who are far more knowledgeable in all aspects of it. I think Dr. Stan Katz summed it up well when he stated that Szasz was on target with his concern over our growing culture of victimhood, but he inappropriately neglected much of the dark reality of mental illness. When I say from time to time that I've spoken to professionals in the field, etc., I obviously haven't attempted any field research regarding who thinks what of whom. But I do get to speak to a number of professionals across the spectrum of psychology/psychiatry and when there is a general consensus in what they say, I assume there to be at least a fair amount of truth in it. As far as Schaler, much of that is my own opinion, although the mention of his name has evoked a few chuckles. The webpage you linked to was interesting and I wasn't aware of the APA award he received, but again the APA is more concerned with public education programs and, in this type of case, awarding those who have made a significant contribution in those areas. I just pulled out three of my psych textbooks, all 600+ pages, and one had a solitary reference to Szasz in the index. Neither of the other two mentioned him at all.

I would agree that the concept of "behavioral health" is mostly concerned with attaching diagnoses to people whose behavior poses a cost to others. However, with the progress being made in the real research (not, for instance, charting how long it takes a lab rat to mature out of its coke habit), to downplay the real problems seems simply cruel to me. While Szasz reviewed much of the existing research and drew some startling conclusions at the time, I can't find any reference him relative to any of the significant developments made in the clinical aspects of the field (as opposed to social.)

And to deny the existence of conditions which have been more than adequately documented does seem a bit "fringe" to me.

[Guest guest]

Tommy,

I'm not trying to start a battle with you on Szasz, as I said I was aware he made some significant contributions in regards to policy and societal issues involving mental health. I'm also not a psychologist so even though it is my major in college there are obviously people who are far more knowledgeable in all aspects of it. I think Dr. Stan Katz summed it up well when he stated that Szasz was on target with his concern over our growing culture of victimhood, but he inappropriately neglected much of the dark reality of mental illness. When I say from time to time that I've spoken to professionals in the field, etc., I obviously haven't attempted any field research regarding who thinks what of whom. But I do get to speak to a number of professionals across the spectrum of psychology/psychiatry and when there is a general consensus in what they say, I assume there to be at least a fair amount of truth in it. As far as Schaler, much of that is my own opinion, although the mention of his name has evoked a few chuckles. The webpage you linked to was interesting and I wasn't aware of the APA award he received, but again the APA is more concerned with public education programs and, in this type of case, awarding those who have made a significant contribution in those areas. I just pulled out three of my psych textbooks, all 600+ pages, and one had a solitary reference to Szasz in the index. Neither of the other two mentioned him at all.

I would agree that the concept of "behavioral health" is mostly concerned with attaching diagnoses to people whose behavior poses a cost to others. However, with the progress being made in the real research (not, for instance, charting how long it takes a lab rat to mature out of its coke habit), to downplay the real problems seems simply cruel to me. While Szasz reviewed much of the existing research and drew some startling conclusions at the time, I can't find any reference him relative to any of the significant developments made in the clinical aspects of the field (as opposed to social.)

And to deny the existence of conditions which have been more than adequately documented does seem a bit "fringe" to me.