Books
In this rigorously researched, profoundly compelling biography of schizophrenia, renowned psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman draws on his four-decade career to illuminate the past, present, and future of this historically dreaded and devastating illness. This powerful portrait of schizophrenia, the most malignant and mysterious mental illness, interweaves cultural and scientific history with dramatic patient profiles and clinical experiences to impart a revolutionary message of hope. For the first time in history, we can effectively treat schizophrenia, limiting its disabling effects—and we’re on the verge of being able to prevent the disease’s onset entirely.
A must-read for fans of medical histories, psychology, and those whose lives have been affected by schizophrenia, this revelatory work offers a comprehensive scientific portrait, crucial insights, sound advice for families and friends, and most importantly, hope for sufferers now and in the generations to come.
Pre-Order Now
Reviews
"Psychiatrist Lieberman (Shrinks) delivers an exceptional and wide-ranging study on schizophrenia’s history and treatments... The history is first-rate, and Lieberman’s empathetic accounts of his patients’ stories drive home the toll the illness takes on patients... The result is a brilliant examination of a long-misunderstood disorder."
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"As he did in his previous book, Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry, Dr. Lieberman skillfully renders a complex disease accessible to all while telling a spellbinding story. The great strength of this book is its clear, compelling exposition of how schizophrenia can and should be successfully treated. In doing so, Lieberman confronts us with the fact that “we know what to do but we just don't do it,” and audaciously brands this a "social injustice." The book will enlighten and inspire all who encounter schizophrenia, either personally or professionally, and is highly recommended."
E. Fuller Torrey, MD, author of Surviving Schizophrenia and founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center
"Lieberman's book is one of the deepest and most comprehensive explorations, yet, of schizophrenia, perhaps the most mysterious among the maladies of the mind. Replete with stories of patients and researchers, he writes with that rare combination of authority, empathy and curiosity that makes this an incredibly captivating book."
Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene
"In this penetrating, important book—at once scholarly and highly readable, authoritative and anecdotal—Jeffrey Lieberman introduces us to the strange and frightening world of schizophrenia, charting its history, its treatments, its highly varied manifestations and insidious causes. He writes with compelling optimism about psychiatry’s great leaps forward; explains when, how, and why the antipsychotics work; and allows us to glimpse the future possibility of prevention. He is perhaps the leading authority working on this topic today, and here he makes the complex science he has mastered fully accessible. If someone I know were diagnosed today, this is the volume to which I would immediately turn, and copies of which I’d distribute to the patient’s friends and family. It will spare such people from anguish and perhaps save their lives."
Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree
In Shrinks, Jeffrey Lieberman, M.D., 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 mad, 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.
Available at
Reviews
