Desperate Remedies

Reviews

Brimming with wisdom and brio, this masterful work spans the history of modern psychiatric practice, from the abject horrors of Victorian asylums to the complexities surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness to this day. Exceedingly well-researched, wide-ranging, provocative in its conclusions, and magically compact, it is riveting from start to finish. Mark my words, Desperate Remedies will soon be a classic. Desperate Remedies is a harrowing, heart-pounding history that will leave you gasping. Andrew Scull vividly transports us to the dismal asylums and experimental operating rooms that haunt psychiatry's past and then links that tragic era with our prescription-happy present. Dryly witty, but always compassionate, he shines a light on a century of medical mayhem and the horror it inflicted on the innocent. This is a riveting, powerful and utterly astonishing read. A blistering critique. Scull's arguments are passionately delivered and while some might sound radical, they also have common sense This fascinating picture of psychiatry since 1900 is absolutely essential, deeply felt and absorbing An erudite, precise and impassioned history of 200 years of psychiatry ... five stars The chilling truth about mental illness: opportunists, asylums and big pharma - there are few heroes in this enraging study of a great failing. Fascinating Desperate Remedies, which tells the story of mental illness over the past two centuries, is meticulously researched and beautifully written, and even funny at times, despite the serious content A vital rallying cry. Scull convincingly conveys the long search for a better take on mental disorder An indisputable masterpiece...a comprehensive, fascinating, and persuasive narrative of the past 200 years of psychiatry. Scull is unsparing in his critiques when motives of money, power, and fame have tempted psychiatrists to disregard the welfare of those under their care. I would recommend this fascinating, alarming and alerting book to anybody. For anyone referred to a psychiatrist it is surely essential Expand reviews