“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
Inscription chiselled below the dome inside the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.
I don’t think Thomas Jefferson was even thinking of women, let alone psychiatrists and mental patients, when he uttered these words, but he seemed reasonably disposed to being open minded about the mind, as we see below.
“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
Fourth panel of Jefferson Memorial, Washington, DC