RaveThe Guardian (UK)... dominated by extremes and hopes. It is meticulously researched and beautifully written, and even funny at times, despite the harrowing content ... in this context, the patients who were lost to \'cutting-edge\' treatments, or simply to appalling care, hardly seem like people – something of which Scull is painfully and compassionately aware ... Scull, as a sociologist, is not entirely sympathetic to psychiatry and psychiatrists. It’s right that he doesn’t spare them, and as the book draws to a close, he writes passionately of the need for a broader approach, embracing more than the currently dominant biological paradigm. His analysis of prevailing diagnoses and their links with pharmacological treatments is sceptical, but he also acknowledges the vital relief of symptoms that can be provided by some medicines and modified ECT. He asks for caution, honesty, humility, and, above all, for understanding.
