Bryan Caplan on Thomas Szasz and The Myth of Mental Illness

Bryan Caplan and I discuss the ideas of the iconoclast social critic and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. Dr. Caplan won the Thomas Szasz award in 2005 for his paper, The Economics of Szasz: Preferences, Constraints, and Mental Illness. We have a wide-ranging conversation about Szasz, his ideas, and how to help ourselves and others when struggling with life. Dr. Caplan shares some of his personal experiences with depression during Covid and how he got out of it. Related Episodes Bryan Caplan on Parenting: https://youtu.be/JM0dGLRgko0 Anthony Stadlen on Szasz: https://youtu.be/wzVVLgpgLBA Jeffrey Schaler on Szasz: https://youtu.be/7wySu4S1w14 Christopher Lane on Shyness: https://youtu.be/GrV46aVkNvM Irvin Kirsch on Antidepressants: https://youtu.be/PtubmyA3BgU Related Videos John Nash on Schizophrenia: https://youtu.be/SizS1nOOeJg Take These Broken Wings (Documentary about Schizophrenia): https://youtu.be/EPfKc-TknWU Titicut Follies (Mistreatment of Involuntary Patients): https://youtu.be/e-wVwtN5f-U Crazywise Film: https://youtu.be/IXnmBIYaIZE Jim Van Os on Schizophrenia: https://youtu.be/sE3gxX5CiW0 Chapters: 00:00 Intro to Bryan Caplan https://twitter.com/bryan_caplan 00:35 Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids https://amzn.to/3NZcxQg 00:56 How did you discover Thomas Szasz? 01:33 The Untamed Tongue https://amzn.to/3NYtTwI 02:07 Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences https://amzn.to/3aAp3bn 02:34 Myth of Mental Illness https://amzn.to/3ANgIvp 02:57 Ceremonial Chemistry https://amzn.to/3P4IBU5 03:25 How long did it take you to understand Szasz? 06:13 What do you think most people misunderstood about Szasz? 08:14 Heavy drinkers respond to incentives https://wp.me/p8ReVr-1i5 10:55 How homosexuality got declassified as a disease 11:41 Transvestism 12:34 The Useful Lie https://wp.me/p8ReVr-1eT 12:56 Responsibility 14:34 Criticisms of Szasz 15:42 Szasz as a philosopher of mind https://wp.me/p8ReVr-rs 16:34 Scott Alexander https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/10/07/contra-caplan-on-mental-illness/ 17:53 Drapetomania https://g.co/kgs/5qVtCe 18:06 What was it like to meet Szasz? https://www.econlib.org/archives/2012/09/thomas_szasz_a.html 19:29 Suicide https://amzn.to/3RuQS5w 20:05 Why do you think Szasz wrote so much? 21:00 Did you get pushback when writing your paper on Szasz? 22:19 Shakespeare and Szasz 23:24 Has Szasz helped you in your personal life? 27:12 Brittany Spears 28:27 Addiction is a Choice https://wp.me/p8ReVr-9U 29:05 Karl Kraus https://wp.me/p8ReVr-1hz 29:51 Szasz's political beliefs 31:13 Suicide 32:29 Epicurus https://epicurus.net/en/menoeceus.html 32:54 Julian Simon https://amzn.to/3P4Kct3 35:17 Surround yourself with friends 36:11 How do you stay productive? 37:51 Lucretius http://classics.mit.edu/Carus/nature_things.html 39:01 How do you deal with depression during Covid? 41:16 Faith in Freedom https://amzn.to/3caLvIq 41:38 Free will https://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/freewill 43:38 Writing advice 44:45 The Baader Meinhof Complex https://youtu.be/2UPrDdb0r70 46:43 Economics of Szasz http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/pdfs/szasz.pdf 49:50 Rational vs. Irrational 52:53 Schizophrenia https://amzn.to/3AK5yb3 56:10 Biographies of schizophrenics https://amzn.to/3IBtJu0 59:15 Hearing voices https://youtu.be/sE3gxX5CiW0