Therapist highly prized by civil liberties group. By Gaby Wine. Jewish Chronicle (9 January 2004, p. 8)

 

Therapist highly prized by civil liberties group

By Gaby Wine

Jewish Chronicle (9 January 2004, p. 8)

A North London therapist has won an award for his contribution to civil liberties.

Anthony Stadlen, 63, from Dartmouth Park, was one of two recipients of the Thomas S. Szasz Award, which is presented by the Centre for Independent Thought in New York. He received $1,000 and a plaque.

Thomas Szasz is a Jewish-American campaigner for individual rights in the field of psychiatry and psychology.

Mr Stadlen, a Belsize Square Synagogue member, has practised privately as an existential-phenomenological therapist since 1971.

He told the JC that his field related to “personal freedom and responsibility. I help people see the implications of their own and other people’s actions, particularly ethical implications. Most psychotherapists panic when things get to a certain stage, and call in a psychiatrist. They stop seeing an individual’s crisis as a problem of living, and redefine it as a ‘mental illness’.”

A teacher at Regent’s College School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, Mr Stadlen said he had worked with a number of clients diagnosed as schizophrenic but had never referred one to a psychiatrist.