Mad in America

The widespread use of lobotomies in the 1920s and 1930s gave way in the 1950s to electroshock and a wave of new drugs. In what is perhaps Whitaker’s most damning revelation, Mad in America examines how drug companies in the 1980s and 1990s skewed their studies to prove that new antipsychotic drugs were more effective than the old, while keeping patients in the dark about dangerous side effects.

A haunting, deeply compassionate book — updated with a new introduction and prologue bringing in the latest medical treatments and trends — Mad in America raises important questions about our obligations to the mad, the meaning of “insanity,” and what we value most about the human mind.