He was a prominent figure in the antipsychiatry movement a well known social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry and of the social contro he was professor emeritus of psychiatry at the state university of new york health science center in syracuse new york. Antipsychiatry quackery squared thomas szasz 2009 book published by syracuse university press view view citation contents buy this book in print summary more than fifty years ago thomas szasz showed that the concept of mental illness a disease of the mind is an oxymoron a metaphor a myth disease in the medical sense affects . Antipsychiatry quackery squared in this latest work freeman columnist thomas szasz fires another salvo in his continuing critique of the disasters wrought by contemporary psychiatry specifically its penchant for coercive pseudomedical interventions that masquerade as treatment while depriving people of their liberty. Main antipsychiatry quackery squared antipsychiatry quackery squared szasz thomas more than fifty years ago thomas szasz showed that the concept of mental illness a disease of the mind is an oxymoron a metaphor a myth disease in the medical sense affects only the body he also demonstrated that civil commitment and the insanity