Break On Through

“In the 1960s and 1970s new pharmacology revolutionized psychiatry. But radical social, economic, and political formations simultaneously demanded a very different kind of mental medicine. This lively and richly interdisciplinary book charts how profound shifts within both medicine and society — and in relations between them — transformed modern American attitudes.”
– Rab Houston, School of History, University of St Andrews; author of Autism in History (with Uta Frith)

“Break On Through is a fascinating history of the blossoming of ‘countercultural’ approaches to mental illness and its treatment in the 1970s. By exploring the mental health ‘fringe‘ — radical psychiatry, the human potential movement, parapsychology, and psychedelic drugs — Lucas Richert offers a bold, fresh perspective on ‘mainstream’ psychiatry and psychology in the late twentieth century. Break On Through will interest not only scholars of post-1970 America but also policymakers seeking insight into today’s mental health care challenges.”
– Nancy Tomes, SUNY Distinguished Professor of History, Stony Brook University

“This book is a trip, in the best sense”
– Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences

“Break on Through: Radical Psychiatry and the American Counterculture offers a refreshing and important contribution to our understanding of the 1970s from the perspective of mental health.”
– Bulletin of the History of Medicine

“Break On Through reminds us that the fringes have in fact had a marked impact on orthodox medicine since the mid-20th century, especially within American psychiatry.”
–Canadian Bulletin of Medical History

Lucas Richert is George Urdang Chair in the History of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of Strange Trips- Science, Culture, and the Regulation of Drugs and coeditor-in-chief of Social History of Alcohol and Drugs- An Interdisciplinary Journal.

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