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1. Psychiatric Justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Thomas Szasz
Thomas Szasz*
Affiliation:
SUNY Health Science Center, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
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Extract

It is now widely accepted, especially in the United States, that confining lawbreakers in mental hospitals as insane, without the benefit of a real trial, rather in prisons as criminals, after a proper trial, is a recent, enlightened Western practice. Nothing could be further from the truth. The practice is not recent, enlightened, or typically Western – resembling the Oriental despotic arbitrariness towards troublesome persons much more closely than the Occidental legal respect towards persons accused of crimes. Many 19th-century cases illustrate the procedure and support my foregoing interpretation of it. The following is a typical example.

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Type
Points of View
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 154 , Issue 6 , June 1989 , pp. 864 - 869
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

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