Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry's Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness
 First edition (US) | |
| Author | Andrew Scull |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | History of psychiatry |
| Published | 2022 |
| Publisher | The Belknap Press (US) Allen Lane (UK) |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 494 |
| ISBN | 9780674265103 |
| OCLC | https://lccn.loc.gov/2021047502 |
| 362.20973 | |
| Preceded by | Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity (Princeton University Press, 2015) |
Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry's Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness by sociologist Andrew Scull is a critical history of two hundred years of treatment of mental disorders in the United States. From the "birth of the asylum" in the 1830s to the drug trials and genetic studies of the 2000s, Scull catalogues efforts by psychoanalysts, psychologists, neuroscientists and social reformers to diagnose and treat mental maladies.
Overview[edit]
Scull maps out the progression of the treatment of mental disorders, beginning in the 19th century with state asylums or state hospitals whose inhabitants, “poor and the friendless”, reached a population of half a million by 1950. The wealthy, on the other hand, got treated at home with often dangerous substances such as morphine and strychnine. Scull details the personalities and progress behind other treatments like Hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, insulin shock therapy, injections of Camphor, Metrazol, electroconvulsive or “shock” therapy, as well as frequently deadly surgical interventions such as colectomy, and lobotomy. He also explores the progression of disease models from humorism to the biochemical model of mental illness, and the advent of psychopharmacology and the development and travails of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Reception[edit]
Initial reaction was positive amongst legacy media. Richard McNally called the book "an indisputable masterpiece" in the Wall Street Journal.[1] Rebecca Lawrence of the Guardian said it was, "meticulously researched and beautifully written, and even funny at times, despite the harrowing content."[2][3][4]
See also[edit]
- Anti-psychiatry
- Michel Foucault
- History of mental disorders
- History of psychiatry
- R. D. Laing
- Thomas Szasz
References[edit]
- ^ McNally, Richard (13 May 2022). "'Desperate Remedies' Review: Mental Health, From Asylums to Zoloft Psychiatry's goal was to transform the treatment of mental illness via science—but the results have been anything but conclusive". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 26 July 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
- ^ Lawrence, Rebecca (9 April 2022). "Desperate Remedies by Andrew Scull review – mind games The chequered history of psychiatry over the last 200 years is one of much pain and some progress". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 21 July 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
- ^ McBain, Sophie (4 June 2022). "Desperate Remedies: A new work charts the cruel and often gruesome history of mental health treatments The sociologist Andrew Scull acknowledges that contemporary psychiatry is more rigorous – but is it more effective?". New Stateman. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
- ^ Merkin, Daphne (10 July 2022). "CAN YOU CURE MENTAL ILLNESS? TWO CENTURIES OF TRYING SAYS NO. A new book looks at the long and sordid history of psychiatry and its attempt to help those living with mental illness". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 20 July 2022. Retrieved 26 July 2022.