G. Mark Mulleian, Thomas S. Szasz and Leonard Roy Frank

C
L
I
C
K

I
M
A
G
E

T
O

E
N
L
A
R
G
E

G. Mark Mulleian
Thomas S. Szasz
Leonard Roy Frank

In the 1970's,
Thomas S. Szasz, one of
the nation's most controversial professors
of psychiatry, visited Mark Mulleian in his San Francisco studio at the Frank Gallery. Also in
the photo is author, Leonard Roy Frank.

Thomas Szasz once mailed an old key to Mulleian, who then put the key into a painting and sent it to Thomas Szasz as a gift. In astonishment Szasz replies back
in a letter to Mulleian.

Thomas S. Szasz, one of the nation's most controversial professors of psychiatry, seen here in one of his several visits with G. Mark Mulleian in the artists loft studio at the Frank Gallery in San Francisco in 1971. Also to the right of the photo is author Leonard Roy Frank. In the background of the photo can be seen one of Mulleian's large unfinished paintings of a Captive seen holding a key on a ring. Consequently, upon retuning to his east cost residence, Szasz was inspired to mail an old key to the artist who then put the key into a painting alongside a torn piece of paper that reads, "Why not leave hidden the things that are not here and not hide things that are?" and sent it to Thomas Szasz as a gift. Szasz responded, "Your painting is and will always be a treasured gift. I am deeply grateful to you for it, and doubly so for the magnificent painting that it is, and for the esteem you hold me in that it symbolizes, and which I hope I deserve. The motto is another thing, still! It is very nice and very apt for a psychiatrist!" Mulleian and Szasz would continue from that time forward to correspond with each other over the years.

Thomas Szasz died at his home in Manlius, N.Y. on September 8, 2012 at the age 92.