What is mad in America about?
Based on exhaustive research culled from old patient medical records, historical accounts, numerous interviews, and hundreds of government documents, Mad in America raises important questions about our obligations to the mad, what it means to be "insane," and what we value most about the human mind. More Details...
Is “mad in America” without merit?
Despite its major shortcomings, Mad in America is not without merit. Chapter 11, on the problems in the clinical trials industry, reflects the author’s considerable prior expertise in this area.
Are modern treatments for the severely mentally ill just old medicine in New bottles?
With a muckraker's passion, Whitaker argues that modern treatments for the severely mentally ill are just old medicine in new bottles, and that we as a society are deeply deluded about their efficacy. Tracing over three centuries of "cures" for madness, Whitaker shows how medical therapies have been used to silence patients and dull their minds.
Are modern treatments for the severely mentally ill deluded?
Try again. Schizophrenics in the United States currently fare worse than patients in the world’s poorest countries. In Mad in America, medical journalist Robert Whitaker argues that modern treatments for the severely mentally ill are just old medicine in new bottles, and that we as a society are deeply deluded about their efficacy.
Is Mad in America reputable?
Mad in America received positive reviews from the general public and mixed reviews from the medical community, which criticized some bias in sourcing but nonetheless acknowledged the need to address the critical questions raised by the book regarding modern psychiatry.
Who wrote Mad in America?
Robert WhitakerMad in America / AuthorRobert Whitaker is an American journalist and author, writing primarily about medicine, science, and history. He is the author of five books, three of which cover the history or practice of modern psychiatry. Wikipedia
What is Mad in America website?
Mad in America is a web magazine that publishes news of psychiatric research, original journalism articles, blogs, and personal stories that challenge the drug-based paradigm of psychiatric care speak to the need to rethink mental health in the United States and abroad.
What is the mad pride movement?
Mad Pride is a mass movement of the users of mental health services, former users, and the aligned, which advocates that individuals with mental illness should be proud of their 'mad' identity.
What is the Mad in America?
Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill. In Mad in America, medical journalist Robert Whitaker reveals an astounding truth: Schizophrenics in the United States currently fare worse than patients in the world's poorest countries, and quite possibly worse than asylum patients did in ...
What is the book Shutter Island about?
This book was referenced by the author of "Shutter Island". It tells the history of mental treatment in America from the Quakers who tried to cure madness with gentle treatment to the drugs prescribed today.
What is the darkest era of the Eugenics movement?
Whitaker writes in detail about the disturbing methods in Part II, “The Darkest Era”, where treatments associated with the Eugenics movement and others are described, from shock therapy, to insulin treatments, to the "surgery of soul", the surgery as labeled by The New York Times in 1937, also known as the lobotomy.
What was the role of the Quakers in caring for the mentally ill in Philadelphia?
A glimpse of hope at that time was the exemplary role of the Quakers in caring (gently and without medical intrusions) for the mentally ill in Philadelphia, as well as the influence of Philippe Pinel [1745 – 1826] and his promotion of “moral treatment” in Europe. The Darkest Era (1900 – 1950)
What was the safest surgery in the 1930s?
With the ‘perfection’ of the operation by Dr. Walter Freeman in the late 30’s, lobotomy replaced the shock therapies as the safest and most modern treatment. Families were told the minimally invasive surgeries would produce short-term side effects and relieve their loved ones of madness.
What was the Whitaker's goal?
They invented new, “safer” drugs, and their prime goal was to outperform their business competitors. Whitaker talks in this section about the proliferation of drugs, such as risperidone, which causes mania where none was before, and about hasty and negligently conducted preliminary trials on those drugs [2002: 286].
What was the first half of the twentieth century?
The first half of the twentieth century was all about the rise of eugenics, segregation mentality and sterilisation efforts in psychiatry. The 1940s also saw the rise of shock treatments for mentally ill which were considered “quick, easy, reliable, and cheap” [Whitaker, 2002: 98].
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What is the book Mad in America about?
The first half of the book recounts the history of psychiatric treatment in America until 1950.
What was the treatment of mental illness in the 1750s?
The treatments from 1750 to 1950 are described as asylum care evolving into eugenics and segregation of people with mental illness, as efforts to reduce patients’ intelligence, and as causing brain damage. Only moral treatment is described positively, for its humanity and humility.
What problems did Whitaker have with psychiatry?
And given Whitaker’s writing skills, it is unfortunate that he did not turn his attention to one of the many real problems in American psychiatry, such as for-profit managed care, Medicaid rip-off, the excess influence and profits of the ”.
What books have sad history?
It is a sad history that has been described in less overwrought tones in books such as Daniel Kevles’s In the Name of Eugenics, Sander Gilman’s Seeing the Insane, and Gerald Grob’s Mental Illness and American Society 1875-1940.
Which book focuses on schizophrenia?
Other books, most notably, The Invisible Plague by Dr. E. Fuller Torrey and Judy Miller have done a much better job at documenting the increase in mental illness. That particular book focuses on schizophrenia and posits that the increase is due to viruses; a cause Mr. Whitaker ignores altogether.
Who did Whitaker approach his subject in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?
Whitaker, by contrast, approaches his subject as did Ken Kesey in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and the result is Nurse Ratched with footnotes. Nowhere does Whitaker acknowledge that these approaches to treatment were measures of desperation in desperate times.
Can we remove live brains?
Brain imaging is still in its infancy and we can’t remove live brains to analyze them. Psychiatry Under the Influence uses the fact that the exact causes of mental illnesses are not yet known to position mental illnesses as being neither chemical imbalances, diseases, disorders, illnesses, or medical.
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