• Bryan Caplan on Thomas Szasz and The Myth of Mental Illness

  • Jul 14 2022
  • Length: 1 hr
  • Podcast

Bryan Caplan on Thomas Szasz and The Myth of Mental Illness

  • Summary

  • 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

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    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

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