Review in The Sunday Times (London) of book on history of psychiatry

[JohnTheJack]

Review by Sebastian Faulks of Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry and the Mysteries of Mental Illness by Andrew Scull.

This in the review stood out to me:

What all these people had in common was a blind zeal for their own methods; avid financial careerism; contempt for the techniques of others; and a consistently dishonest way of presenting their results.

Review (paywalled):
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...chilling-truth-about-mental-illness-7swk0drq6

Book on Amazon UK:
Amazon product ASIN 0241509246

 

[Laurie P]

From the Amazon page:

Amazon product ASIN 0241509246
Andrew Scull weighs American psychiatry in the balance and finds it seriously wanting. So this may not be the best introductory text for an aspiring medical student. But it is required reading for anyone who appreciates great writing, insight and outstanding scholarship - just the kind of people we want doing psychiatry -- Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Regius Professor of Psychiatry, King’s College London

 

[John Mac]

Andrew Scull weighs American psychiatry in the balance and finds it seriously wanting.
Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Regius Professor of Psychiatry, King’s College London

But obviously not our first class British psychiatry which is beyond reproach

 

[JohnTheJack]

But it is required reading for anyone who appreciates great writing, insight and outstanding scholarship - just the kind of people we want doing psychiatry -- Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Regius Professor of Psychiatry, King’s College London

Priceless.

 

[rvallee]

Priceless.

Comically revealing. Write well, appear witty and get max funding, I guess this looks about as good a description of Wessely's career trajectory and accomplishments. Not much else to be found. Oh, I guess a unhealthy dose of lack of self-awareness, it completes the picture so marvelously.