The Great Pretender
The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness
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Narrated by:
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Christie Moreau
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Susannah Cahalan
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By:
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Susannah Cahalan
About this listen
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Books of 2019 Pick
From "one of America's most courageous young journalists" (NPR) comes a propulsive narrative history investigating the 50-year-old mystery behind a dramatic experiment that changed the course of modern medicine.
For centuries, doctors have struggled to define mental illness - how do you diagnose it, how do you treat it, how do you even know what it is? In search of an answer, in the 1970s a Stanford psychologist named David Rosenhan and seven other people - sane, normal, well-adjusted members of society - went undercover into asylums around America to test the legitimacy of psychiatry's labels. Forced to remain inside until they'd "proven" themselves sane, all eight emerged with alarming diagnoses and even more troubling stories of their treatment. Rosenhan's watershed study broke open the field of psychiatry, closing down institutions and changing mental health diagnosis forever.
But, as Cahalan's explosive new research shows, very little in this saga is exactly as it seems. What really happened behind those closed asylum doors, and what does it mean for our understanding of mental illness today?
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Susannah Cahalan (P)2019 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Breathtaking! Cahalan's brilliant, timely, and important book reshaped my understanding of mental health, psychiatric hospitals, and the history of scientific research. A must-read for anyone who's ever been to therapy, taken a brain-altering drug, or wondered why mental patients were released in droves in the 1980s. And a thrilling, eye-opening read even for those who thought they weren't affected by the psychiatric world." (Ada Calhoun, author of St. Marks Is Dead and Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give)
"A well-told story fraught with both mystery and real-life aftershocks that set the psychiatric community on its ear." (Kirkus)
"Susannah Cahalan has written a wonderful book that reflects years of persistent and remarkable historical detective work. The Great Pretender is an extraordinary look at the life of a Stanford professor and a famous paper he published in 1973, one that dramatically transformed American psychiatry in ways that still echo today. The book is fast-paced and artfully constructed - an incredible story that constitutes a tribute to Cahalan's powers as both a writer and a sleuth." (Andrew Scull, author of Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity)
"The Great Pretender is a tight, propulsive, true-life detective story which somehow also doubles as a sweeping history of our broken mental health-care system. Cahalan herself has experienced this system as both a patient and a reporter, and her background informs every fascinating page of this dogged investigative odyssey. It is an amazing achievement, and there is no question it will go down as the definitive account of one of the most influential psychology experiments of all time." (Luke Dittrich, New York Times best-selling author of Patient H.M.)
"Cahalan researched The Great Pretender over the course of five years, but the pages practically turn themselves. It's absorbing, sometimes sobering, sometimes seriously funny. Cahalan's narration makes the reading great fun, with an urgency occasionally akin to a thriller." (Shelf Awareness)
Editor's Pick
What is sanity?
"I loved Susannah Cahalan’s memoir, Brain on Fire, for both its unflinching firsthand portrayal of a young woman’s experience with a mysterious brain condition, as well as its detective-like exploration into her diagnosis. So I’m thrilled to see this brilliant writer tackling the topic of mental health once again in her latest release, The Great Pretender, which focuses on a groundbreaking experiment in which eight healthy individuals voluntarily went undercover into the asylums throughout the US. The outcome is at once a fascinating slice of history, a shocking expose, and an education into the field of psychiatry and mental health treatment—in other words, another captivating combo from Cahalan. I’m thrilled to have the chance to be in this writer’s brain once again."
—Sam D., Audible Editor
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In 2020, an estimated 5.8 million Americans had Alzheimer’s, and more than half a million died because of the disease and its devastating complications. Sixteen million caregivers are responsible for paying as much as half of the $226 billion annual costs of their care. As more people live beyond their 70s and 80s, the number of patients will rise to an estimated 13.8 million by 2025. Part case studies, part meditation on the past, present and future of the disease, The Problem of Alzheimer's traces Alzheimer’s from its beginnings to its recognition as a crisis.
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A must read
- By kara kuntz on 05-20-21
By: Jason Karlawish
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Suspicious Minds
- How Culture Shapes Madness
- By: Joel Gold, Ian Gold
- Narrated by: Joel Gold, Ian Gold
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Mr. A. was admitted to Dr. Joel Gold’s inpatient unit at Bellevue Hospital in 2002. He was, he said, being filmed constantly, and his life was being broadcast around the world "like The Truman Show" - the 1998 film depicting a man who is unknowingly living out his life as the star of a popular soap opera. Over the next few years, Gold saw a number of patients suffering from what he and his brother, Dr. Ian Gold, began calling the "Truman Show Delusion," launching them on a quest to understand the nature of this particular phenomenon and the nature of madness itself.
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Intriguing
- By L. K. on 04-18-16
By: Joel Gold, and others
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The Book of Woe
- The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry
- By: Gary Greenberg
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
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For more than two years, author and psychotherapist Gary Greenberg has embedded himself in the war that broke out over the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM) - the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) compendium of mental illnesses and what Greenberg calls "the book of woe". Since its debut in 1952, the book has been frequently revised, and with each revision, the "official" view on which psychological problems constitute mental illness has changed.
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Disappointment
- By NYNM on 06-03-13
By: Gary Greenberg
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Anatomy of an Epidemic
- Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
- By: Robert Whitaker
- Narrated by: Ken Kliban
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades? Every day, 1,100 adults and children are added to the government disability rolls because they have become newly disabled by mental illness, with this epidemic spreading most rapidly among our nations children. What is going on?
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The author does not use a fair scientific approach
- By Michael on 08-15-10
By: Robert Whitaker
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Paranormal
- My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife
- By: Raymond Moody MD, Paul Perry
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The grandfather of the NDE (near death experience) movement, Raymond Moody has, in the words of Dr. Larry Dossey, author of The Power of Premonitions, "radically changed the way modern humans think about the afterlife." Paranormal, essential listening for fans of Dannion Brinkley and Jeffrey Long, is "a thrilling and inspiring literary experience. Anyone who is not grateful for Moody's immense contribution to human welfare ought to check his pulse."
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Engaging memoir of near-death researcher
- By tru britty on 03-20-20
By: Raymond Moody MD, and others
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Sybil Exposed
- The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case
- By: Debbie Nathan
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist Debbie Nathan reveals the true story behind the famous case of Sybil, the woman with sixteen different personalities.
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No definitive answer, just speculations all around
- By Amy A on 12-30-18
By: Debbie Nathan
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Danger to Self
- On the Front Line with an ER Psychiatrist
- By: Paul R. Linde
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The psychiatric emergency room, a fast-paced combat zone with pressure to match, thrusts its medical providers into the outland of human experience where they must respond rapidly and decisively in spite of uncertainty and, very often, danger. In this lively first-person narrative, Paul R. Linde takes listeners behind the scenes at an urban psychiatric emergency room, with all its chaos and pathos, where we witness mental health professionals doing their best to alleviate suffering.
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Terrible narration
- By Leah on 12-16-12
By: Paul R. Linde
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Falling into the Fire
- A Psychiatrist's Encounters with the Mind in Crisis
- By: Christine Montross
- Narrated by: Christine Montross
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Falling into the Fire is psychiatrist Christine Montross's thoughtful investigation of the gripping patient encounters that have challenged and deepened her practice. Beautifully written, deeply felt, Falling into the Fire brings us inside the doctor’s mind, illuminating the grave human costs of mental illness as well as the challenges of diagnosis and treatment. At once rigorous and meditative, Falling into the Fire is an intimate portrait of psychiatry, allowing the reader to witness the humanity of the practice and the enduring mysteries of the mind.
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Buy this book! and READ it
- By joyce on 08-15-13
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The Lives They Left Behind
- Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
- By: Peter Stastny, Darby Penney
- Narrated by: Alex Paul
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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More than four hundred abandoned suitcases filled with patients’ belongings were found when Willard Psychiatric Center closed in 1995 after 125 years of operation. They are skillfully examined here and compared to the written record to create a moving—and devastating—group portrait of twentieth-century American psychiatric care.
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Not really the book I expected
- By B. Shaff on 11-09-17
By: Peter Stastny, and others
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Peace, Love & Healing
- Bodymind Communication & the Path to Self-Healing: An Exploration
- By: Bernie S. Siegel
- Narrated by: Bernie S. Siegel
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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A classic of patient empowerment, Peace, Love & Healing offered the revolutionary message that we have an innate ability to heal ourselves. Now proven by numerous scientific studies, the connection between our minds and our bodies has been increasingly accepted as fact throughout the mainstream medical community. In a new introduction, Dr. Bernie Siegel highlights current research on the relationships among consciousness, psychosocial factors, attitude, and immune function.
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horrible horrible
- By Honestly on 02-09-15
By: Bernie S. Siegel
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The Gift of Adversity
- The Unexpected Benefits of Life's Difficulties, Setbacks, and Imperfections
- By: Norman E. Rosenthal M.D.
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The noted research psychiatrist explores how life's disappointments and difficulties provide us with the lessons we need to become better, bigger, and more resilient human beings. Adversity is an irreducible fact of life. Although we can and should learn from all experiences, both positive and negative best-selling author Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal believes that adversity is by far the best teacher most of us will ever encounter.
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Book ruined by the narrator
- By David C. on 12-07-22
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Saving Normal
- An Insider’s Revolt Against out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life
- By: Allen Frances MD
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In Saving Normal, Allen Frances, one of the world's most influential psychiatrists, warns that mislabeling everyday problems as mental illness has shocking implications for individuals and society: Stigmatizing a healthy person as mentally ill leads to unnecessary, harmful medications, the narrowing of horizons, misallocation of medical resources, and draining of the budgets of families and the nation.
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Right on the money
- By Mentecuerpo on 03-29-19
By: Allen Frances MD
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The Good Death
- An Exploration of Dying in America
- By: Ann Neumann
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Following the death of her father, journalist and hospice volunteer Ann Neumann sets out to examine what it means to die well in the United States. When Ann Neumann's father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, she left her job and moved back to her hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She became his full-time caregiver - cooking, cleaning, and administering medications. When her father died, she was undone by the experience, by grief and the visceral quality of dying.
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Ugh, so boring
- By Maranto on 05-13-19
By: Ann Neumann
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Galileo's Middle Finger
- Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science
- By: Alice Dreger
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful defense of intellectual freedom told through the ordeals of contemporary scientists attacked for exploring controversial ideas, by a noted science historian and medical activist.
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Engrossing but...
- By Lilly F. on 12-30-20
By: Alice Dreger
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Oddly Normal
- One Family's Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality
- By: John Schwartz
- Narrated by: John Schwartz, Joseph Schwartz
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Three years ago, John Schwartz, a national correspondent for the New York Times, got the call that every parent hopes never to receive: His 13-year-old son, Joe, was in the hospital following a suicide attempt. Mustering the courage to come out to his classmates, Joe had delivered a tirade about homophobic and sexist attitudes that was greeted with unease and confusion by his fellow students. Hours later, he took an overdose of pills.
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The Effect of Parental Caring
- By Wiliam on 01-16-13
By: John Schwartz
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The Undying
- Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care
- By: Anne Boyer
- Narrated by: Amy Finegan
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A week after her 41st birthday, the acclaimed poet Anne Boyer was diagnosed with highly aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. For a single mother living paycheck to paycheck who had always been the caregiver, the catastrophic illness was both a crisis and an initiation into new ideas about mortality and the gendered politics of illness. The Undying explores the experience of illness as mediated by digital screens, weaving in ancient Roman dream diarists, cancer hoaxers and fetishists, cancer vloggers, pro-pain "dolorists", and the many little murders of capitalism.
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Provocative and moving
- By C. FREEMAN on 05-13-20
By: Anne Boyer
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In 1953, a 27-year-old factory worker named Henry Molaison - who suffered from severe epilepsy - received a radical new version of the then-common lobotomy, targeting the most mysterious structures in the brain. The operation failed to eliminate Henry’s seizures, but it did have an unintended effect: Henry was left profoundly amnesic, unable to create long-term memories. Over the next 60 years, Patient H.M., as Henry was known, became the most studied individual in the history of neuroscience, a human guinea pig who would teach us much of what we know about memory today.
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Sort of misleading title
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A story you've never heard before
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In the 1980s, American psychiatry announced that it was time to toss aside Freudian ideas of mental disorder because the true path to understanding and treating mental illness lay in brain science, biochemistry, and drugs. This sudden call to revolution, however, was not driven by any scientific breakthroughs. Nor was it as unprecedented as it seemed. Why had previous efforts stalled? Was this latest call really any different? In Mind Fixers, Anne Harrington offers the first comprehensive history of the troubled search for the biological basis of mental illness.
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A summary relevant to each of us
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Life changing
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A must read for anyone in the medical field, and anyone who has ever gone undiagnosed.
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Girls and Their Monsters
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In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame to their fledgling institution.
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What listeners say about The Great Pretender
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Run Darren run!
- 01-19-20
Slow going but got better.
I was excited to read this because I tore through Brain on Fire so fast. I knew this was going to be different but I had high hopes.it was slow going and boring at first but it got more interesting after the first few chapters. The story telling is great and I get why people say it reads like a mystery but at times it gets boring going off on tangents and statistics and lost interest.
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5 people found this helpful
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- susan mcdonough
- 12-06-19
I’m thrilled people are talking about mental health
I loved Susannah Cahalan’s first book And while this one is more technical. The world needs to start reading and researching and finding answers to why some people are touched with mental illness and why some are not. Is it the inability to process folic acid, Is it a slight swelling in the brain due to immune issues, is it Harmons?? I am so hopeful that we are closer to understanding. I praise Susannah For her dedication to this topic. She was the right person to be touched with insanity and recover from it. Thank you.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Shellie Mach
- 01-27-20
Enlightening
Anyone interested in mental health should read this book. Mental health is such an important issue in our society today.
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- Valerie
- 09-02-21
What’s the Takeaway?
Imagine being a passenger in a car and the driver is talking to you about New York the whole ride, so you assume that’s where you’re headed. But then just as you’re about to reach New York he hops off the highway and turns toward Pennsylvania, and it turns out you’re actually going there… Or maybe not. Hard to know because the car just kind of slows to a stop in the middle of nowhere.
I’m just not sure what I was supposed to gain from this when all was said and done. The message seemed crystal clear for the first ~75-80% of the book, and then took a turn in an entirely different direction. It’s like okay, interesting twist, but where does it leave things?
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9 people found this helpful
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- Samantha
- 03-20-20
Take it all with a grain of salt.
The beginning and the middle were top notch, and I was absolutely fascinated until the last couple chapters of the book. You took a perfectly good book and just... YEETED IT OUT THE WINDOW. The theory that Rosenhan outright made up parts of his study and that America should reopen it's asylums are two ideas that I, AS A MENTALLY ILL PERSON, find disgusting and outright insulting.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-10-19
pretty boring
struggled to finish, she repeats herself over and over and doesn't really have a clear path or plot.
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5 people found this helpful
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- CmSt3ampunk
- 09-08-21
Second half much more interesting than the first
wish the second portion of the book was more fleshed out, it went quite a few direcrions before finding what I felt was the most interesting topic.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-27-19
Thought provoking
Irresistible, moving unbiased information delivered with unwavering honesty. A must read for psychiatric community, families, caregivers and all touched with the day to day grappling of what we call mental illness.
Highly recommend
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3 people found this helpful
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- Junkal
- 03-06-20
A great book for any professional of the mind
Read this book if you are in any way related to psychology, psychiatry or even medicine. It will open your eyes.
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- Tunt Bailey
- 06-10-22
interesting listen
very interesting topic. I always wondered. how people got inside views of people in asylum
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