Mad, Bad And Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present (Paperback)

A tantalising mix of polemic and history, of ideology and fact . . . A gripping read . . . In a league far above any other book of its kind on this topic * SUNDAY BUSINESS POST *
Subtle, textured and enthralling . . . One of the great strengths of this book is the way in which it charts the uncanny relationship between fashions in psychiatric theory and sufferers' symptoms * SUNDAY TIMES *
Marvellous. At last! A serious, well-researched book on this important subject * Pamela Stephenson *
The triumph of MAD, BAD AND SAD is to mix evocative case studies with potted histories of the great and good of psychology and psychiatry . . . intelligent and academically rigorous * OBSERVER *
** 'Informative in startling ways, and never dull in the academic way, Appignanesi's genuinely new History of the Mind Doctors is a subtle and accessible account of that perhaps most daunting of modern relationships, the one between the Mind Doctor and his female patient. Because Appignanesi has a complex story to tell there is no blaming at work in this wonderful book, but a shrewd and sympathetic apprehension of what is at stake in the difficult histories of both the Mind Doctors and those they seek to help. It is a remarkable achievement * Adam Phillips *
** 'A tantalising mix of polemic and history, of ideology and fact . . . A gripping read . . . In a league far above any other book of its kind on this topic * SUNDAY BUSINESS POST *
** 'Endlessly fascinating * THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *
** 'Subtle, textured and enthralling . . . One of the great strengths of this book is the way in which it charts the uncanny relationship between fashions in psychiatric theory and sufferer s' symptoms * SUNDAY TIMES *