The Great Pretender

People have asked me over the years: if they liked The Psychopath Test, what should they read next? I now have an answer. Susannah Cahalan's The Great Pretender is such an achievement. It's a wonderful look at the anti-psychiatry movement and a great adventure - gripping, investigative. It's destined to become a popular and important book -- JON RONSON Utterly compelling . . . important and spirited * * Observer * * Bold, brave, and original, The Great Pretender grips you as tightly as the madness it investigates. Cahalan writes with enormous intelligence and style, and propels you through this dark and fascinating journey into psychiatry and the very nature of sanity -- SUSAN ORLEAN Breathtaking! Cahalan's brilliant, timely and important book reshaped my understanding of mental health, psychiatric hospitals and the history of scientific research. A must-read for anyone who's ever been to therapy, taken a brain-altering drug or wondered why mental patients were released in droves in the 1980s. And a thrilling, eye-opening read even for those who thought they weren't affected by the psychiatric world -- ADA CALHOUN Gripping account of a study that rocked the foundational concepts of how we judge sanity . . . A well-told story fraught with both mystery and real-life aftershocks that set the psychiatric community on its ear * * Kirkus (starred review) * *