“Book Descriptions:From alienists to mesmerists to shrinks: the fascinating story of psychiatry's demise and redemption in the field of medicine, by the President of the American Psychiatric Association.
In SHRINKS, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, shares the story of psychiatry's origins and the checkered history of useless or harmful treatments-including hydrotherapy, lobotomies, and primal screaming-that made psychiatry the black sheep of medicine.
Lieberman describes psychiatry's scientific rehabilitation, beginning after WWII, with the discipline's slow embrace of psychopharmacology, genetics, and neuroscience, and how it has been transformed into an evidence-based profession. With the latest information on how to know if something is wrong with you or your loved ones, and guidance on obtaining the best care, SHRINKS is a gripping and illuminating read that reveals shocking case studies and serves as an urgent call-to-arms to start treating mental illness as a disease rather than a state of mind.