Editing Thomas Szasz (section)

===Abolish involuntary commitment===

Szasz made efforts to abolish [[Involuntary commitment|involuntary psychiatric hospitalization]] for over two decades, and in 1970 took a part in founding the [[American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization]] (AAAIMH).<ref>{{cite book |last=Torrey |first=Edwin Fuller |author-link=Edwin Fuller Torrey|title=Surviving Schizophrenia: A family manual |year=1988|publisher=Perennial Library|isbn=978-0-06-055119-3|page=315|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uYJHAAAAMAAJ|access-date=2015-06-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804101738/https://books.google.com/books?id=uYJHAAAAMAAJ|archive-date=2016-08-04|url-status=live}}</ref> Its founding was announced by Szasz in 1971 in the ''[[American Journal of Psychiatry]]''<ref>{{cite journal|last=Szasz|first=Thomas|title=American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization|journal=[[American Journal of Psychiatry]]|date=June 1, 1971|volume=127|issue=12|page=1698|url=http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=152361|pmid=5565860|doi=10.1176/ajp.127.12.1698|access-date=June 1, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203022238/http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=152361|archive-date=February 3, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> and ''[[American Journal of Public Health]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Szasz|first=Thomas|title=To the editor|journal=[[American Journal of Public Health]]|year=1971|volume=61|page=1076|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jVUqAQAAMAAJ|doi=10.2105/AJPH.61.6.1076-a|pmid=18008426|pmc=1529883|issue=6|access-date=2015-06-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318141938/http://books.google.com/books?id=jVUqAQAAMAAJ|archive-date=2015-03-18|url-status=live}}</ref> Until it was dissolved in 1980, the association provided legal help to psychiatric patients and published a journal, ''The Abolitionist''.<ref name=Schaler>{{cite book |title=Szasz Under Fire: A Psychiatric Abolitionist Faces His Critics |year=2004 |publisher=Open Court Publishing |isbn=978-0-8126-9568-7 |ol=17135675M |page=xiv |editor=Schaler, Jeffrey}}</ref>

According to Williams and Caplan, "Szasz's philosophical activism was not intended to improve the treatment of people affected by mental illness as much as to block involuntary treatment." Citing Szasz's writings, legal reforms were enacted, and all 50 US states narrowed their criteria for involuntary commitment from the prior standard of "need for treatment"—causing the number of patients in public psychiatric hospitals to plummet, and the [[Homelessness in the United States|homeless population]] to balloon. It also exponentially increased the prison population with an estimate of 40%–80% inmates with mental illness by 2006.{{r|williams and caplan}}

Three legal decisions were key:
* ''Lessard v. Schmidt'' (1972) required states to narrow their vague commitment statutes, 
* ''[[O'Connor v. Donaldson]]'' (1975) limited commitment to imminently dangerous mentally ill persons, and 
* ''[[Rennie v. Klein]]'' (1978) established the right of patients to refuse mental treatment.{{r|williams and caplan}}