Faith in Freedom: Thomas Szaz’s Challenge to Libertarians by Rick Giobbetti. (Thanks to the reader who sent me this link.)

In his latest book, Faith In Freedom: Libertarian Principles and Psychiatric Practices, psychiatrist and long time advocate for the abolition of involuntary committment Thomas Szasz challenges his fellow libertarians to apply the libertarian credo of self-ownership and non-agression to people accused of mental illness. While libertarians both past and present have expressed many ideas concerning economic regulations Szasz agrees with, most have turned a blind eye to, or even openly supported, the incaceration and forced treatment of people accused of mental illness. Szasz argues that the detention and inprisonment, plus forced treatment, of innocent people accused of mental illness is a more egregious violation of libertarian principles than economic regulations. Szasz argues that the regime of coercive psychiatry in Western societies is a manifestation of what he calls a “therapeutic state,” and that libertarians must recognize this and fight it if they are really interested in creating a truly free society. Szasz scoffs at the ideas put forward by mathematical economists and the embrace of mathematical economics by many libertarians. Szasz compares the folly of the mathematical economists with the folly of those who argue that the existential problems of those accused of mental illness are problems that should and must be dealt with in a coercive manner by modern medical science. Szasz characterizes the pronouncements of modern economists and psychiatrists as examples of “scientism,” or imitations of modern science. READ MORE

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.