American Madness (Four Hundred Years of Mental Illness and Its Treatment)

A powerful chronicle of mental illness in America, revealing the complex ties of social and medical understandings of madness across our 250-year history, so that we might better understand our present and future—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Nicole

Moonstruck. Deranged. Distempered. Whatever we’ve called it and however we've treated it, mental illness has affected Americans as long as there’s been an America to call home. The story of madness in this country is one of human suffering but also of great human perseverance.

In this remarkable narrative history, Amy Ellis Nutt takes us from pre-Revolutionary America to the contemporary moment, exploring how our national character of individualism and optimism has shaped centuries of discoveries, trauma, and trends. Through the eyes of patients, family members, doctors, scientists, mavericks, and charlatans, Nutt recounts the trajectory from colonial burial rites designed to trap demons to ecstasy-dosed octopuses teaching us about the desire to connect, from the tavern brawl that may have led to the country's first mental hospital to the leftover Nazi rocket fuel that helped make the world's first antidepressant, from the very first clinical interview to the rise of telehealth.

Nutt examines her subject with the precision of a science writer, the human insight of a journalist, and a deep sense of empathy coming from her own experiences with the mental healthcare system. This humane, nuanced record illuminates the winding path that has brought us to our current state of mental health and healthcare, and reveals how our past will shape where we might go from here.

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