RaveThe Wall Street JournalImmensely emotional and unforgettably haunting, The Best Minds is the story of a deep friendship shattered by the nightmare of psychosis.
Andrew Scull
RaveThe Wall Street JournalOurs is a time of historical reckoning for many fields, and psychiatry is no exception. An indisputable masterpiece among a flurry of reappraisals is Andrew Scull’s Desperate Remedies—a comprehensive, fascinating and persuasive narrative of the past 200 years of psychiatry in America ... he is unsparing in his critiques when motives of money, power and fame have tempted psychiatrists to disregard the welfare of those under their care.
Robert Kolker
RaveThe Wall Street JournalMr. Kolker’s riveting, compassionate Hidden Valley Road tells the story of a family besieged by devastating mental illness ... With the skill of a great novelist, Mr. Kolker brings every member of the family to life ... Mr. Kolker describes all this science well, without getting lost in technical details. His chief achievement, however, is an absorbing narrative of persistence, adjustment and exhilaration—followed by repeated disappointment when discoveries fail to replicate or yield effective treatments ... Hidden Valley Road vividly conveys not only the inner experience of schizophrenia but its effects on the families whose members are afflicted.
Anne Harrington
RaveThe Wall Street JournalAt last, after a 50-year detour through the psychoanalytic wilderness, psychiatry...confirmed that mental disorders are brain diseases after all ... The historian of science Anne Harrington has a problem with such triumphalist narratives ... Her jarring verdict notwithstanding, Ms. Harrington’s superb book is a nuanced account of biological psychiatry. ... In Mind Fixers, Anne Harrington has written an excellent, engaging guide to what biological psychiatry has accomplished—and not accomplished—so far.
John Donovan & Caren Zucker
RaveThe Wall Street JournalThe Story of Autism tells a riveting tale about how a seemingly rare childhood disorder became a salient fixture in our cultural landscape. It features vivid portraits of people with autism and their devoted parents and recounts dramatic controversies among well-intentioned and occasionally misguided advocates and doctors who have tried to help those with the condition. These gripping personal stories give the book tremendous narrative drive.
