Shrinks: the untold story of psychiatry

Description

From alienists to mesmerists to shrinks: the fascinating story of psychiatry's demise and redemption in the field of medicine, by the former president of the American Psychiatric Association. In Shrinks, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, shares the story of psychiatry's origins and the checkered history of useless or harmful treatments--including hydrotherapy, lobotomies, and primal screaming--to its rehabilitation and transformation into an evidence-based profession. A gripping and illuminating read, Shrinks reveals shocking case studies and serves as an urgent call to arms to start treating mental illness as a disease rather than a state of mind.;Introduction: What's wrong with Elena? -- Part I: The story of diagnosis. The stepchild of medicine : mesmerists, alienists, and analysts ; Down the garden path : the rise of the shrink ; What is mental illness? : a farrago of diagnoses ; Destroying the Rembrandts, Goyas, and Van Goghs : anti-Freudians to the rescue -- Part II: The story of treatment. Desperate measures : fever cures, coma therapy, and lobotomies ; Mother's little helper: medicine at last -- Part III: Psychiatry reborn. Out of the wilderness : the brain revolution ; Soldier's heart : the mystery of trauma ; The triumph of pluralism : the DSM-5 ; The end of stigma : the future of psychiatry.