Culture

Szaszian—Zsaszian?—Shout Out in Batman Begins

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There's a moment in the surprisingly watchable new flick Batman Begins when the psycho-medic running Arkham Asylum, Dr. Jonathan Crane (a.k.a. Scarecrow), mentions patient "Szasz" (as in Reason Contributing Editor Thomas) or, more likely, patient "Zsasz," a Batman character whose name is an inverted homage to everyone's favorite critic of involuntary commitment and many other coercive practices that hide under the rubric of helping people.

Read Szasz's excellent 2000 interview with Reason here. And then read Senior Editor Jacob Sullum's review of the new book Szasz Under Fire here. And then check out The Thomas S. Szasz Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsbility, which includes photos from the 85th birthday party Reason Foundation, the nonprofit publisher of Reason and Reason Online, here.