A review by callienicole
The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan

4.0

I read Cahalan's other book, Brain On Fire, so I was really interested in this one. It's partly the story of this guy who tried to infiltrate assylums and expose abuse, and partly an examination of how we handle mental illness in America today. There was some language in this book, and the author takes some positions I don't agree with (she definitely gets on her soapbox here and there). Also some rather disturbing descriptions of homosexuality "treatment" through history, watch out for that section if you are sensitive to sexual content. But overall, the most interesting aspect was how this one man changed how we treat mental illness, and though some good things resulted, the book suggests perhaps the closing of asylums wasn't fully a good thing since many people with mental illness aren't really helped at all now. Gave me alot to think about.