Lieberman Jeffrey A. - Shrinks: the untold story of psychiatry

Jeffrey Lieberman has produced a masterful behind-the-scenes examination of psychiatryand, by extension, the human condition. His epic narrative charts the unlikely ascent of the stepchild of medicine from the earliest parlor-room charlatans of animal magnetism to the contentious Digital Age rollout of the DSM-5, paralleling Liebermans own professional transformation from eager psychoanalytic student of Freud to neuroscience-minded president of a reformed American Psychiatric Association. A wise and gripping book that tackles one of the most important questions of our time: what is mental illness?

Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree

Authoritative, scientifically scintillating, and anecdotally dazzling.

Elle

This is an astonishing book: honest, sober, exciting, and humane. Lieberman writes with the authority of an expert but with the humility of a doctor who has learned to treat the most profound and mysterious forms of mental illnesses. From Elenas story to the newest treatments in psychopharmacology and behavioral therapy, this book brings you to the very forefront of one of the most amazing medical journeys of our time.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies

Shrinks is as thorough as it is lively.

Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mind

An intelligent, encouraging survey of the psychiatric industry. Vastly edifying and vigorously writtena much-needed update on how far the psychiatric industry has come, both medically and from a public perception standpoint.

Kirkus Reviews

Shrinks is the most authoritative exploration I have read of the state of contemporary psychiatry and the paradox of the growing availability of effective treatments vs. the failure of the majority of those with severe mental illnesses to take advantage of those treatments. It is also the most hopeful. Jeffrey Liebermans extraordinary account of the scientific revolution in psychiatrya revolution that he both participated in and helped to fosteris compelling. But it is his candor, lack of dogmatism, and sensitivity to suffering that will linger in your mind long after youve turned the last page.

Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind

In the latter part of the twentieth century, cognitive psychology, the science of the mind, merged with neuroscience, the science of the brain. That merger, energized by molecular biology, has generated a new science of psychiatry that has roots in both modern psychological and biological research. Only someone such as Jeffrey Lieberman, who has led a great Department of Psychiatry on the one hand and headed the American Psychiatric Association on the other, and whose career reflects this synthesis, has both the clinical and scientific vision to write a modern history of the evolution of psychiatry, from its primitive origins to its current promise for the future. This highly readable and fully accessible book puts the history of psychiatry into a modern perspective for the general reader.

Eric R. Kandel, MD, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

For my parents, Howard and Ruth, who inspire me; my wife, Rosemarie, and sons, Jonathan and Jeremy, who support me; and my patients, who guide me.