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spacetoread's review against another edition
3.0
Looking at the history of psychiatry through the lens of a 1973 study involving pseudo-patients in mental hospitals, Cahalan then extends this book into a question of psychiatry as a whole. Cahalan provides an interesting perspective given her history with mental impairment and psychosis. However, the book overall felt weirdly organized and tough to follow.
paperbookslove's review against another edition
2.0
I have a lot of problems with this book. My biggest one is she doesn't address her own bias. She starts this book wanting to love Doctor Rosenhan because his study, "On Being Sane in Insane Places", supports her own personal experience. When the flaws in the study become clear, especially whether or not he fabricated much of it, she has a difficult time reconciling them. The chapters about Rosenhan and her quest to learn who the pseudopatients were are really interesting but the rest of it is unneeded editorializing about how to "fix" the mental health care system. She didn't do enough research on that incredibly broad topic to address any of it. Her opinions rely too much on her own personal experience and she didn't even have a mental illness in the end. I really, really, hated the epilogue of this book. Her takeaways really bothered me and while our health care system has many problems, her dismissal of psychiatry in general and the approval of dangerous alternative medicine were really concerning to me.
If you want to read this book, I would focus only on the chapters about Doctor Rosenhan.
If you want to read this book, I would focus only on the chapters about Doctor Rosenhan.
kdfugle's review against another edition
4.0
I RECIEVED THIS ARC COPY FROM A GIVEAWAY
Again, Susannah Cahalan has written a very excellent book. As someone going into medicine, fascinated in psychology, it was inciteful to hear about the transformation of the field from its past to now. I have acknowledged for years there is much progress that needs to be made in the field of psychology. But I genuinely hope these changes are on the horizon and that information that has eluded us until now on causes for these diseases are revealed.
That being said, as this is an ARC (which I should have read years ago but put off due to school), it did feel a bit sporadic. I have no clue if this was improved in the finalized version. There did seem to be some random jumps to topics that the author felt relevant, which were, however the transitions were sometimes sudden. I did appreciate the detailed breakdown of this specific study, and how the possibly fabrication of the results influenced so heavily the current operation of the field.
Great read overall. I hope to share this book with my school's psychiatry and behavioral medicine club.
Again, Susannah Cahalan has written a very excellent book. As someone going into medicine, fascinated in psychology, it was inciteful to hear about the transformation of the field from its past to now. I have acknowledged for years there is much progress that needs to be made in the field of psychology. But I genuinely hope these changes are on the horizon and that information that has eluded us until now on causes for these diseases are revealed.
That being said, as this is an ARC (which I should have read years ago but put off due to school), it did feel a bit sporadic. I have no clue if this was improved in the finalized version. There did seem to be some random jumps to topics that the author felt relevant, which were, however the transitions were sometimes sudden. I did appreciate the detailed breakdown of this specific study, and how the possibly fabrication of the results influenced so heavily the current operation of the field.
Great read overall. I hope to share this book with my school's psychiatry and behavioral medicine club.
laurakershaw's review against another edition
4.0
Good book - I've seen the original study cited in psychology classrooms and always had a little bit of doubt so enjoyed this deep-dive into the attributes that were true and false about the findings.
koryandreas's review against another edition
4.0
“Psychiatry at its best is what all medicine needs more of—humanity, art, listening, and empathy—but at its worst it is driven by fear, judgment, and hubris. In the end, the takeaway, repeated again and again in my interviews, is: Medicine in general, and psychiatry in particular, is as mysterious and soulful as it is scientific.”
emmettpatterson's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0