Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts and Pushers

by Thomas Szasz

s/t: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts & Pushers
Thomas Szasz suggests that governments have overstepped their bounds in labeling and prohibiting certain drugs as "dangerous" substances and incarcerating drug "addicts" in order to cure them. Szasz asserts that such policies scapegoat illegal drugs and the persons who use and sell them, and discourage the breaking of drug habits by pathologizing drug use as "addiction." Reaers will find in Szasz's arguments a cogent and committed response to a worldwide debate.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Sociology, Mental Health, Philosophy

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Thomas Stephen Szasz (pronounced /sas/; born April 15, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary) was a psychiatrist and academic. He was Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. 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 control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as of scientism. He is well known for his books, The Myth of Mental Illness (1960) and The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement which set out some of the arguments with which he is most associated.

Reviews

[Neal Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to Szasz, health is the dominant good in our society. So, for example, medicating someone against their will is justified, because health trumps freedom from assault. This is part of what he calls the Therapeutic State. By contrast, in medieval society, religion was the dominant good. Szasz makes an analogy between those who misused religion then – witches - with those who misuse therapies now - drug dealers and users.

How is drug misuse officially defined? According to Szasz, the answer lies not in the drug, but the user. At the start of the 20th century opium was considered indispensable in medicine, and only became 'dangerous' when there were too many users of the wrong kind – notably, Chinese. In the same way, he says, that it's absurd to use lab analysis to detect kosherness in wine, a drug is labelled 'dangerous' not according to its pharmacology but rather its users.

He argues that addiction has only been defined as a disease since the early 20th century, and wrongly. Drugs are used by individuals for their own various reasons and, he says, this is no business of the medical establishment or the state. On opiates again, although Szasz doesn't mention it, the US expected a huge number of returning Vietnam veterans to be persistent users, but it didn't happen, because their main reason for opiate use ended with their participation in the war. Addictiveness is something ascribed to drugs used by the wrong kind of people. Hence, for example, until the 1980s cocaine was not considered addictive. In another of Szasz' pithy phrases, it is 'just as absurd to search for non-addictive drugs that produce euphoria as it would be to search for non-flammable liquids that are easy to ignite.'

[Mel Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual for Szasz, his book takes a very expansive look at the topic at hand--in this case, drug use and policy. He brings us in conclusion to a fundamental question: Are we ourselves merely the victims of our own poor choices that are beyond our control,in need of protection by a paternalistic totalitarian society (not just government, but medical-industrial complex), or are we able to make hard choices and be responsible on our own?
In classic Szaszian style he uncovers the hypocrisy and inconsistency of the social mores we accept implicitly. He argues that current medical science in fact shares much with traditional religion and "magic," that Western society promotes its own traditional drugs (alcohol and tobacco) and discriminates against nonWestern drugs, and that much legislative policy creates by definition the problems it purports to solve. While some policy change has happened in the 40 years since he published, much remains remarkably relevant.
He considers the meaning of the words 'addiction' and 'pharmakos' and what their meaning communicates about our worldview assumptions.
Along the way for free we learn of the virulent racism of Samuel Gompers, the cocaine habit of Sigmund Freud, the marginalization of the role of women in traditional medical history narratives, and what Malcolm X, Edmund Burke, and the Puritans had in common.
I don't always agree with Szasz here, but he never fails to make me consider things from perspectives I hadn't before imagined. Am I mistaking metaphor for the literal? Am I mistaking sentiment for logic? Have I thought about the bias of the person I'm listening to? These are questions I consider more often thanks to Szasz (R.I.P.), the conscience of psychiatry and the gadfly of totalitarian government everywhere.

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've worked several jobs in the mental health industry and completed a professional degree in psychology with the intention of a career in psychotherapeutics. The jobs have consisted of three stints as a childcare worker dealing with adolescents diagnosed as psychotic, one position as the administrator of a battery of diagnostic tests for clients entering therapy, one as an administrator of a treatment evaluation schedule for a psychiatric hospital and an psychotherapeutic internship as a chaplain at a hospital associated with Columbia University. In addition, I have worked in two other hospitals, once as an orderly in a geriatric residence and once as an Admissions/ER administrator at a hospital associated with Northwestern University. These experiences, much reading in the field and various encounters with the psychiatric and psychopharmacological establishments have given me a great deal of informed interest in the work of Thomas Szasz, psychoanalyst and anti-psychiatry psychiatrist.

I read Szasz' Ceremonial Chemistry, his history and indictment of the drug abuse industry, while away from work at Loyola University on jury duty. The book was quite engaging, particularly strong on the paradigmatic case of opiate prohibitions, and a salutory distraction from the hurry-up-and-wait of the courthouse.

[Daren Dugan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this a few years ago...

[Jacob Bornheimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic overview and criticism of the "drug problem"/ war on drugs. Thomas Szazs expounds an interpretation of what he calls 'missionary medicine' as the new permutation of religion in a secular world, a new scientific religion. I.e. encouraged/discouraged drugs are for the most part ceremonially differentiated instead of chemically. Essential to this is that drug prohibition is not only a war against disapproved drugs it is also a war for the approved medico-scientific drugs of the day. Or in cases of drug policy being policed in foreign areas, a war for western ceremonial drugs alcohol and tobacco. The book charts the societal shift of certain substances from panacea (cure-all) to panapathogen (corrupt-all). Concepts of medicine and psychiatry as social control are also discussed. Though released in the 70s much of this book still holds true to the current situation. With the impending legalization of cannabis in Canada, we shall soon see whether Szazs' ideas play out re: prohibition creating adverse behaviour, and the 'forbidden fruit effect'.

I highly recommend this book for anybody who has grown up without questioning the drug propaganda that has been fed to us since birth, and anybody who wants to dig deeper into why some substances are forbidden and some not.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book, even though I'm not sure how much of it I agree with exactly. It's a moral & philosophical take on the drug war and the motivations of the different actors. The language is a bit dated now, but is interesting nonetheless as an artifact on how we, as a society, have gotten from then to now and the ways the terms of drug use have shifted over that time. The book also goes a bit into social control and the seemingly never ending struggle between authority and autonomy.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Szasz subtitled this The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers. It’s a brilliant piece of work drawing on history from as far back as the witch trials and persecution of Jews. His thesis is that mankind requires scapegoats on a ritual scale. While hardly a ground-breaking idea, the depth of his examination is.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the one of TS's books with which I am most sympathetic. I'm not a legalizer, but we should ask ourselves why traditional cultures were generally able to use MJ, coca leaves, entheogens, etc. in moderation, and we seemingly can't.

[Lobstergirl]

Cover and typography by Edward Gorey.

[C]

Sloppy. Full of historical inaccuracies / intellectually dishonest twists. Writing style is pompous and indirect. Still, an important milestone in a certain line of criticism.