Research Catalog

Title

Madness on the couch : blaming the victim in the heyday of psychoanalysis / Edward Dolnick.

Author

Dolnick, Edward, 1952-

Publication

New York : Simon & Schuster, c1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

368 p., [8] p. of plates; 25 cm.

Summary

"In the golden age of "talk therapy," the 1950s and 1960s, psychotherapists saw no limit to what they could do. Believing they had already explained the origins of war, homosexuality, anti-Semitism, and a host of neurotic ailments, they set out to conquer one of mankind's oldest and fiercest foes, mental illness. In Madness on the Couch, veteran science writer Edward Dolnick tells the tragic story of that confrontation. ... Madness on the Couch uses the voices of therapists as well as those of patients and their loved ones to describe the controversial methods used to treat the mentally ill, and their heartbreaking consequences. We see the leading lights of psychotherapy at work, including tiny, grandmotherly Frieda Fromm-Reichmann; gawky Gregory Bateson, either a genius or a charlatan, depending on whom one asked; and birdlike R.D. Laing, a slender figure with dark, deep-set eyes and the charisma of a rock star. We meet, too, scientists and family members who fought the reigning dogma of the day. Bernard Rimland, for example, set out to refute the claim that autism was caused by "refrigerator" parents whose coldness had turned their children into zombies. Rimland's only "credential" in his battle with the experts was the fact that his son was autistic. A gripping tale of hubris, arrogant pride, and terrible heartbreak, Madness on the Couch ... shows us convincingly that in attempting to cure mental illness through talk therapy, psychoanalysis did infinitely more harm than good."--Jacket.

Subject

• Psychoanalysis
• Psychiatric errors
• Schizophrenia > Treatment > History
• Autism > Treatment > History
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder > Treatment > History
• Mental illness > Etiology
• Autistic Disorder > therapy
• Mental Disorders > etiology
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder > therapy
• Schizophrenia > therapy

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [332]-346) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Prologue. In search of El Dorado -- pt. 1. Freud -- pt. 2. The heyday of psychoanalysis -- pt. 3. Schizophrenia -- pt. 4. Autism -- pt. 5. Obsessive-compulsive disorder -- pt. 6. Conclusion.

ISBN

0684824973

LCCN

^^^98023737^

OCLC

• 39093654
• SCSB-9982181

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library