I must begin this review with a confession of my biases. I have had bipolar disorder for 20 years and have learned through hard-fought experience how to control it. I also have progressed through medical school, but do not practice medicine due to side effects of medications for bipolar disorder. For a career, I build software infrastructure that supports the medical research system. I found Andrew Scull’s history of psychiatry enlightening. He clearly explains how certain strands of the psych system evolved historically.
For example, he explains how getting rid of psychiatric hospitals in favor of outpatient care seemed to be the result of legislators trying to save a buck rather than the beneficence of citizens. He describes this as changing one form “benign neglect” into another. He also describes more recent controversies about the efficacy of pharmacological treatments. He is rather cynical about the value of these drugs. He points out the problems and imperfection but has little understanding of why they are abundantly used. Even if they mask symptoms instead of curing, they work better than almost every alternative.
I found myself at odds with much of his strongly stated recommendations for its future. He simply does not admit his limitations as a man of letters without any experience with the clinical domain. Any answers for the future will surely come together from the consensus of diverse teams and communities, not from seemingly all-knowing academic individuals. He offers no way forward for psychiatric clinicians other than stating that they should be more attentive to the social domain. If drugs don’t work well, then why are they so widely used? (And why do they seem to help me?)
Thus, my review of this work is mixed. The history is outstanding and objective, but the analysis of recent controversies is driven more by Scull’s opinion and less by a restrained view of the facts. He becomes a hyperbolic social advocate (by training, he is a sociologist) and stays away from scientific study that looks for opportunities and learning.
Those involved in the American and British mental health systems can benefit from reading this work. There is no manual to the system, and whether professionals or patients, we all learn by trial and error how to make progress. This book can aid in that process, regardless of what we think of his recommendations. To be effective, the mental health system needs more attention, thought, funding, and study on many fronts. I think we can all agree on that.
Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness
By Andrew Scull
Narrated by Jonathan Keeble
Copyright (c) 2022
Tantor Audio
ASIN B0B1P8QSSF
Length: 18:09
Genre: History of Medicine
www.amazon.com