The Myth of Mental Illness was the book that launched Szasz’s reputation as a critical psychiatrist. Although he was aware of its controversial nature, the storm it generated in the United States and beyond took him by surprise. Examining the early years of Szasz’s career and contermplating certain contextual factors, in particular the sociopolitical background that shines through his work in many ways, as well as the social circumstances around psychiatry at the time, show to what extent his publications before 1961 predicted his later rebellion against the psychiatric establishment. In these early discussions of such topics as pain, psychosomatic illness, and scientific reductionism, one sees germs of his bent toward libertarian sociological, philosophical, and ideological theories of psychoanalyis, the physician-patient relationship, sociopolitical psychology, and culture in general.