Desperate Remedies

This fascinating picture of psychiatry since 1900 is absolutely essential, deeply felt and absorbing – David Aaronovitch * The Times *An erudite, precise and impassioned history of 200 years of psychiatry … five stars – Simon Ings * The Sunday Telegraph *The chilling truth about mental illness: opportunists, asylums and big pharma - there are few heroes in this enraging study of a great failing. Fascinating – Sebastian Faulks * The Sunday Times *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 * Guardian *A vital rallying cry. Scull convincingly conveys the long search for a better take on mental disorder * TLS *A blistering critique. Scull’s arguments are passionately delivered and while some might sound radical, they also have common sense * New Statesman *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 * Wall Street Journal *I would recommend this fascinating, alarming and alerting book to anybody. For anyone referred to a psychiatrist it is surely essential – Horatio Clare * The Spectator *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 – Susannah Cahalan, author of Brain on Fire and The Great PretenderDesperate 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 – Simon Rich, author of Hits and Misses

Andrew Scull is a distinguished professor of Sociology and Science Studies at University of California, San Diego, and recipient of the Roy Porter Medal for lifetime contributions to the history of medicine, and the Eric T. Carlson Award for lifetime contributions to the history of psychiatry. The author of more than a dozen books, his work has been translated into more than fifteen languages, and he has received fellowships from, among others, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies and the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies.