Book 4, Presumption of Sanity (Dying to Succeed)

Books by Richard Jan

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I was the COO of a public company with an international board of directors. The stock was sold on the London and Alberta Stock Exchange. The principle product was the beautiful gemstone: From Montana where the stones were mined deep in the Rocky Mountains, they were transported to the Sri Lanka for cutting and polishing before finally being shipped to the diamond district in New York City to be sold. The work introduced me to a world far different from anything I had previously experienced.

It was a journey which introduced me to a rich background and wealth of characters, enough to fill many books of fiction. Travel with me now into this world of beauty and conflict. Thank you, Richard Jan Business is the lifeblood of every civilization and the engine of war. Are you an author? Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography. Learn more at Author Central. In the typical Western two men fight desperately for the possession of a gun that has been thrown to the ground: In ordinary life, the struggle is not for guns but for words; whoever first defines the situation is the victor; his adversary, the victim.

Book 12, Snows of Fear (Dying to Succeed)

For example, in the family, husband and wife, mother and child do not get along; who defines whom as troublesome or mentally sick? If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; If you talk to the dead, you are a schizophrenic. To Szasz, disease can only mean something people "have", while behavior is what people "do".

Diseases are "malfunctions of the human body, of the heart, the liver, the kidney, the brain" while "no behavior or misbehavior is a disease or can be a disease.

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That's not what diseases are. Likewise, women who did not bend to a man's will were said to have hysteria. He maintained that, by calling people diseased, psychiatry attempts to deny them responsibility as moral agents in order to better control them. In Szasz's view, people who are said by themselves or others to have a mental illness can only have, at best, "problems in living". Diagnoses of "mental illness" or "mental disorder" the latter expression called by Szasz a " weasel term " for mental illness are passed off as "scientific categories" but they remain merely judgments judgments of disdain to support certain uses of power by psychiatric authorities.

In that line of thinking, schizophrenia becomes not the name of a disease entity but a judgment of extreme psychiatric and social disapprobation. Szasz called schizophrenia "the sacred symbol of psychiatry" because those so labeled have long provided and continue to provide justification for psychiatric theories, treatments, abuses, and reforms.

The figure of the psychotic or schizophrenic person to psychiatric experts and authorities, according to Szasz, is analogous with the figure of the heretic or blasphemer to theological experts and authorities. According to Szasz, to understand the metaphorical nature of the term "disease" in psychiatry, one must first understand its literal meaning in the rest of medicine. To be a true disease, the entity must first, somehow be capable of being approached, measured, or tested in scientific fashion.

Second, to be confirmed as a disease, a condition must demonstrate pathology at the cellular or molecular level. A genuine disease must also be found on the autopsy table not merely in the living person and meet pathological definition instead of being voted into existence by members of the American Psychiatric Association.

They are often "like a" disease, argued Szasz, which makes the medical metaphor understandable, but in no way validates it as an accurate description or explanation. Psychiatry is a pseudoscience that parodies medicine by using medical-sounding words invented especially over the last one hundred years.

To be clear, heart break and heart attack , or spring fever and typhoid fever belong to two completely different logical categories, and treating one as the other constitutes a category error. Psychiatrists are the successors of "soul doctors", priests who dealt and deal with the spiritual conundrums, dilemmas, and vexations — the "problems in living" — that have troubled people forever. Psychiatry's main methods are assessment, medication, conversation or rhetoric and incarceration. To the extent that psychiatry presents these problems as "medical diseases", its methods as "medical treatments", and its clients — especially involuntary — as medically ill patients, it embodies a lie and therefore constitutes a fundamental threat to freedom and dignity.

Psychiatry, supported by the state through various Mental Health Acts, has become a modern secular state religion according to Szasz. It is a vastly elaborate social control system, using both brute force and subtle indoctrination, which disguises itself under the claims of being rational, systematic and therefore scientific. According to Szasz, many people fake their presentation of mental illness, i.

They do so for gain, for example, in order to escape a burden like evading the draft, or to gain access to drugs or financial support, or for some other personally meaningful reason. By definition, the malingerer is knowingly deceitful although malingering itself has also been called a mental illness or disorder.

Szasz mentions malingering in many of his works, but it is not what he has in mind to explain many other manifestations of so-called "mental illness". The human body is subject to illnesses and disabilities expressed through somatic signs like paralysis, convulsions, etc. If we accept that " mental illness " is a euphemism for behaviors that are disapproved of, then the state has no right to force psychiatric "treatment" on these individuals. Similarly, the state should not be able to interfere in mental health practices between consenting adults for example, by legally controlling the supply of psychotropic drugs or psychiatric medication.

The medicalization of government produces a "therapeutic state", designating someone as, for example, "insane" or as a "drug addict".

In Ceremonial Chemistry , he argued that the same persecution that targeted witches , Jews , gypsies , and homosexuals now targets "drug addicts" and "insane" people. Szasz argued that all these categories of people were taken as scapegoats of the community in ritual ceremonies.

To underscore this continuation of religion through medicine, he even takes as example obesity: According to Szasz, despite their scientific appearance, the diets imposed were a moral substitute to the former fasts , and the social injunction not to be overweight is to be considered as a moral order, not as a scientific advice as it claims to be. As with those thought bad insane people , and those who took the wrong drugs drug addicts , medicine created a category for those who had the wrong weight obesity. Szasz argued that psychiatrics were created in the 17th century to study and control those who erred from the medical norms of social behavior; a new specialization, drogophobia, was created in the 20th century to study and control those who erred from the medical norms of drug consumption; and then, in the s, another specialization, bariatrics , was created to deal with those who erred from the medical norms concerning the weight the body should have.

Just as legal systems work on the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty, individuals accused of crimes should not be presumed incompetent simply because a doctor or psychiatrist labels them as such. Mental incompetence should be assessed like any other form of incompetence, i. In an analogy to birth control , Szasz argued that individuals should be able to choose when to die without interference from medicine or the state, just as they are able to choose when to conceive without outside interference. He considered suicide to be among the most fundamental rights, but he opposed state-sanctioned euthanasia.

In his book about Virginia Woolf he stated that she put an end to her life by a conscious and deliberate act, her suicide being an expression of her freedom of choice. Szasz believed that testimony about the mental competence of a defendant should not be admissible in trials.

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Psychiatrists testifying about the mental state of an accused person's mind have about as much business as a priest testifying about the religious state of a person's soul in our courts. Insanity was a legal tactic invented to circumvent the punishments of the Church, which at the time included confiscation of the property of those who committed suicide, often leaving widows and orphans destitute.

Only an insane person would do such a thing to his widow and children, it was successfully argued. On re-direct-examination, questions on matters not dealt with during the cross-examination, may be allowed by the court in its discretion.

The court will grant or withhold leave in its discretion, as the interests of justice may require. Leading and misleading questions. It is not allowed, except:. A misleading question is one which assumes as true a fact not yet testified to by the witness, or contrary to that which he has previously stated.

It is not allowed. Impeachment of adverse party's witness. Party may not impeach his own witness. A witness may be considered as unwilling or hostile only if so declared by the court upon adequate showing of his adverse interest, unjustified reluctance to testify, or his having misled the party into calling him to the witness stand. The unwilling or hostile witness so declared, or the witness who is an adverse party, may be impeached by the party presenting him in all respects as if he had been called by the adverse party, except by evidence of his bad character.

He may also be impeached and cross-examined by the adverse party, but such cross-examination must only be on the subject matter of his examination-in-chief. How witness impeached by evidence of inconsistent statements. If the statements be in writing they must be shown to the witness before any question is put to him concerning them. Evidence of good character of witness. Exclusion and separation of witnesses. The judge may also cause witnesses to be kept separate and to be prevented from conversing with one another until all shall have been examined.

When witness may refer to memorandum. So, also, a witness may testify from such writing or record, though he retain no recollection of the particular facts, if he is able to swear that the writing or record correctly stated the transaction when made; but such evidence must be received with caution.

When part of transaction, writing or record given in evidence, the remainder, the remainder admissible. Right to respect writing shown to witness. Proof of private document. Any other private document need only be identified as that which it is claimed to be. When evidence of authenticity of private document not necessary. How genuineness of handwriting proved. Evidence respecting the handwriting may also be given by a comparison, made by the witness or the court, with writings admitted or treated as genuine by the party against whom the evidence is offered, or proved to be genuine to the satisfaction of the judge.

Public documents as evidence. All other public documents are evidence, even against a third person, of the fact which gave rise to their execution and of the date of the latter. Proof of official record. If the office in which the record is kept is in foreign country, the certificate may be made by a secretary of the embassy or legation, consul general, consul, vice consul, or consular agent or by any officer in the foreign service of the Philippines stationed in the foreign country in which the record is kept, and authenticated by the seal of his office.

What attestation of copy must state. The attestation must be under the official seal of the attesting officer, if there be any, or if he be the clerk of a court having a seal, under the seal of such court. Irremovability of public record. Public record of a private document. Proof of lack of record. How judicial record impeached. Proof of notarial documents.

Alteration in document, how to explain.

He may show that the alteration was made by another, without his concurrence, or was made with the consent of the parties affected by it, or was otherwise properly or innocent made, or that the alteration did not change the meaning or language of the instrument. If he fails to do that, the document shall not be admissible in evidence.

Documentary evidence in an unofficial language. To avoid interruption of proceedings, parties or their attorneys are directed to have such translation prepared before trial. The purpose for which the evidence is offered must be specified. When to make offer.

Thomas Szasz - Wikipedia

Documentary and object evidence shall be offered after the presentation of a party's testimonial evidence. Such offer shall be done orally unless allowed by the court to be done in writing. Objection to a question propounded in the course of the oral examination of a witness shall be made as soon as the grounds therefor shall become reasonably apparent. An offer of evidence in writing shall be objected to within three 3 days after notice of the unless a different period is allowed by the court.

When repetition of objection unnecessary. The reason for sustaining or overruling an objection need not be stated. However, if the objection is based on two or more grounds, a ruling sustaining the objection on one or some of them must specify the ground or grounds relied upon. On proper motion, the court may also order the striking out of answers which are incompetent, irrelevant, or otherwise improper. Tender of excluded evidence.

If the evidence excluded is oral, the offeror may state for the record the name and other personal circumstances of the witness and the substance of the proposed testimony. Preponderance of evidence, how determined. In determining where the preponderance or superior weight of evidence on the issues involved lies, the court may consider all the facts and circumstances of the case, the witnesses' manner of testifying, their intelligence, their means and opportunity of knowing the facts to which there are testifying, the nature of the facts to which they testify, the probability or improbability of their testimony, their interest or want of interest, and also their personal credibility so far as the same may legitimately appear upon the trial.

The court may also consider the number of witnesses, though the preponderance is not necessarily with the greater number. Proof beyond reasonable doubt.

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