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Post by mikelmidnight on Jul 25, 2016 12:05:05 GMT -5
I'm actually a bit of a fan of Thomas Szasz but have never heard about that conenction. The name isn't unique, though.
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Post by chadwilliam on Jul 26, 2016 0:59:53 GMT -5
I was impressed with the way Alan Grant handled the origin of his creation Zsasz ... I haven't read any of the stories of this character, but his name seems like a clear reference to Thomas Szasz, the maverick psychiatrist. Was this mentioned in the comics, or in an interview? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Szasz"... he was best known as a social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, as what he saw as the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as scientism. [...] Szasz argued throughout his career that mental illness is a metaphor for human problems in living, and that mental illnesses are not real in the sense that cancers are real. Except for a few identifiable brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, there are “neither biological or chemical tests nor biopsy or necropsy findings for verifying or falsifying DSM diagnoses", i.e., there are no objective methods for detecting the presence or absence of mental illness."
I'd be surprised if there wasn't a connection. Grant seems very well read and you get the sense that what he did with certain characters such as Anarky and Zsasz only graze the tip of the iceberg of what he'd like to delve into. Zsasz, in fact, spent much of his first appearance locked in a cage espousing many of his personal beliefs regarding society, religion, and psychiatry. Szasz sounds as if he'd serve as a logical template for such a chacter. Thanks very much for the info Rob.
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Post by foxley on Jul 26, 2016 3:18:06 GMT -5
Found the confirmation I was looking for:
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