This fascinating history of mind doctors and their patients probes the ways in which madness, badness, and sadness have been understood over the last two centuries. Lisa Appignanesi charts a story from the days when the mad were considered possessed to our own century when the official psychiatric manual lists some 350 mental disorders. Women play a key role here, both as patients-among them Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and Marilyn Monroe-and as therapists. Controversially, Appignanesi argues that women have significantly changed the nature of mind-doctoring, but in the process they have also inadvertently highlighted new patterns of illness.

About the Author
Lisa Appignanesi, is the author of Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors and All About Love: Anatomy of an Unruly Emotion. A prize-winning novelist and writer, she is the president of English PEN. She lives in London.

Reviews
"Ambitious . . . brilliant . . . a powerhouse of a book." -- Daphne Merkin - New York Sun
"Fascinating. . . . A meticulous and exhaustive account." -- Kathryn Harrison - New York Times Book Review
"Sophisticated, vigorously written, full of striking subtexts . . .an entertaining and well-researched book that avoids easy answers." -- Andrew Scull - Times Literary Supplement



Book Information
ISBN 9780393335439
Author Lisa Appignanesi
Format Paperback
Page Count 554
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 678g
Dimensions(mm) 208mm * 140mm * 30mm