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 A well written, extensively researched expose on what it means to be a psychiatric patient in America. From Bedlam, in the 1800s, to the psuedo-research being done by today's drug companies, this book provides its readers with solid informattion. There are consequences to "trusting" your psychiatric caregiver without first researching what's "out there." If you have ever taken, or think you might one day need help in adjusting your mental state with society's expectations, read this book first. It's the only way to make an informed decision; you'd be crazy not to!
The first half of "Mad in America" is an over-wrought retelling of an old story, the bizarre - and by today's standards cruel - treatment of the mentally ill down the ages. His history adds nothing new to our understanding of those times. Instead, these disturbing tales set the stage for the author's indictment of modern-day drug treatments for schizophrenia. By the time the average reader gets to the chapters that cover the mid-20th century and on, he or she is emotionally primed to believe the worst of psychiatry, which seems to be the ultimate aim of this manipulative book. The author writes that drug treatments for schizophrenia do not work and make patients sicker. This simply isn't true. Although there is no cure for schizophrenia, medications can successfully treat its harrowing symptoms. Study after study has shown that most schizophrenics who are treated with anti-psychotic drugs have their lives significantly improved. They experience fewer relapses and hospitalizations, shorter stays in hospital when they do relapse, and fewer delusions and hallucinations. The author says we are no better off in understanding and treating mental illness than we were in the 1700s. Again, this isn't true. Technological and scientific advances are allowing us to understand more about the structure and chemistry of the brain than ever before. The efficacy of drugs has grown over time. The overwhelming majority of people who take anti-psychotic medications suffer only small side effects, like changes in weight. How can the author, who spends the first part of the book describing scaldings and chair-spinning, seriously conclude that we are still in the medical dark ages when it comes to treating the mentally ill? Equally surprising is Mr. Whitaker's conclusion that schizophrenics in India and Nigeria do better than similar people in the United States and other developed countries because doctors in the developing world don't keep their patients on anti-psychotic medications. The author cites World Health Organization (WHO) studies. But those studies did not conclude that drugs had anything to do with people's long term health. In fact, scientists and researchers are still struggling to understand the WHO findings decades after they were first published. I have to conclude that the author fixed onto an idea - that drugs can't help the mentally ill - committed to writing a book about it and refused to let go of the idea, even when the facts got in the way of his original thesis. This book is way off the mark and not to be recommended. |
Based on the logic of this book, it's hard to imagine that Mr. Whitaker had ever used, say, diapers because he certainly would have known what the toilet was for as soon as he was born. Similarly, there would be no need for progress in Mr. Whitaker's life because he would have been born with the knowledge of everything. He would have known what a singularity is, how the brain works, and, perhaps, how to make a perfect Martini. Such naive arrogance, if I may phrase it this way, suggests that history and progress is irrelevant, unnecessary, and meaningless. The logic of this book, to any intelligent reader, is obviously absurd. In his logic, epilepsy, like schizophrenia, should not be an illness because people with this illness used to be treated with "cruelty": holes were drilled through the skulls of these people in order to release the evil spirits-as if he can decide, as a reporter, based on his own liking, what constitutes an illness.
