Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.

Syracuse New York: Syracuse University Press. 2004. James M.

His views on special treatment followed from classical liberal roots which are based on the principles that each person has the right to bodily and mental self-ownership and the right to be free from violence from others although he criticized the "Free World" as well as the communist states for their use of psychiatry and "drogophobia". In 1973 the American Humanist Association named him Humanist of the Year and in 1979 he was honored with an honorary doctorate in behavioral science at Universidad Francisco Marroquín.