With sharp and soulful insight, T. M. Luhrmann examines the world of psychiatry, a profession which today is facing some of its greatest challenges from within and without, as it continues to offer hope to many.

At a time when mood-altering drugs have revolutionized the treatment of the mentally ill and HMO’s are forcing caregivers to take the pharmacological route over the talking cure, Luhrmann places us at the heart of the matter and allows us to see exactly what is at stake. Based on extensive interviews with patients and doctors, as well as investigative fieldwork in residence programs, private psychiatric hospitals, and state hospitals, Luhrmann’s groundbreaking book shows us how psychiatrists develop and how the enormous ambiguities in the field affect its practitioners and patients. “Clear-eyed intellectual analysis...shrewd, witty, refreshing.”–The New York Times

“[A]stute and fascinating.... [V]ividly portrays the fierce and often unnecessary wars between those representing the interests of the mind and the brain.”–Kay Redfield Jamison

“A more nuanced treatment of the moral and philosophical issues than any previous discussion”–The New Yorker