Identify Epithetical Books Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

Title	:	Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill
Author	:	Robert Whitaker
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 334 pages
Published	:	April 17th 2003 by Basic Books (first published January 3rd 2002)
Categories	:	Psychology. Nonfiction. History. Health. Mental Health. Science. Mental Illness. Medicine

Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill Paperback | Pages: 334 pages

Interpretation To Books Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

In Mad in America, medical journalist Robert Whitaker reveals an astounding truth: Schizophrenics in the United States currently fare worse than patients in the world's poorest countries, and quite possibly worse than asylum patients did in the early nineteenth century. With a muckraker's passion, Whitaker argues that modern treatments for the severely mentally ill are just old medicine in new bottles, and that we as a society are deeply deluded about their efficacy. Tracing over three centuries of "cures" for madness, Whitaker shows how medical therapies have been used to silence patients and dull their minds. He tells of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century practices of "spinning" the insane, extracting their teeth, ovaries, and intestines, and submerging patients in freezing water. The "cures" in the 1920s and 1930s were no less barbaric as eugenic attitudes toward the mentally ill led to brain-damaging lobotomies and electroshock therapy. Perhaps Whitaker's most damning revelation, however, is his report of how drug companies in the 1980s and 1990s skewed their studies in an effort to prove the effectiveness of their products. Based on exhaustive research culled from old patient medical records, historical accounts, numerous interviews, and hundreds of government documents, Mad in America raises important questions about our obligations to the mad, what it means to be "insane," and what we value most about the human mind.

Present Books In Favor Of Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

Original Title:	Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill
ISBN:	0738207993 (ISBN13: 9780738207995)
Edition Language:	English

Rating Epithetical Books Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

Ratings: 4.16 From 1940 Users | 152 Reviews

Evaluate Epithetical Books Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

This history of the treatment of madness in times leading up to our own backwards treatment of "mental illness" is a true wonder of scholarship and impartiality. True, the author shows science to be largely a sham concocted by those who speak and act "in the name of a science run amok," but he doesn't outright dismiss their findings-- he shows us the fairly obvious flaws and barbarism inherent in many acts perpertraited on the so-called "mad" in the name of progress and for anyone interested in



Basically the history of psychiatry in America. Shocking and gruesome and incredibly useful. I already think of psychiatrists as quacks, but I didn't know they had such a violent history of quackery. Wow.

Great read. Whitaker digests a huge body of historical and scientific literature to produce this tragic, compelling story of schizophrenia in America.The case Whitaker builds suggests that the majority of psychiatric patients in the United States have, for the past 50 years, been subjected to treatment that is detrimental to their recovery, as well as immoral and abusive. You'll question any faith you have in the moral infallibility of doctors. You'll be enraged at the corrupt, pseudo-scientific

Only got a few chapters in. This is a subject I'm passionate about as I had a brother who suffered from schizophrenia. This book should be take off shelves due to its antiquated and misguided information on mental illness.

this is a grim but i think mandatory history of psychiatry in america. it seems to me that, at this time, the people we can truly trust when it comes to exploring mental health culture are investigative journalists. this book is not kind to psychiatry, and i think this is exactly as it should be. whitaker documents painstakingly every assertion he makes and shows us a discipline that was born wrongly and retains to this day the misguidedness of its roots. i don't know about other countries

What did I think? I think the abuse that the mentally ill have suffered over the years is repulsive. I bookmarked and highlighted many passages to share with my circle. To ignore the hell in which the mentally ill dwell is to turn your back on humanity. I can think of no worse life than that of a person who sought help and basically got turned into a vegetable for my troubles. And that is the least of the worries of those placed on neuroleptics or the "wonder drugs" of today. I am totally not