Welcome to Litsy!

🧐

We do not appreciate abstractions, they argued, without direct experience with the substances that form them.

This centers on a study conducted in the 70s in which people presented themselves as having mental health issues and get themselves committed to institutions for various lengths of time. The study was published and over the years affected other areas of mental health studies including the DSM 3rd Edition.
It‘s clear why this case would interest Cahalan if you have read her previous book.
It is a deeply researched book. ⬇️

Trying this one again. I don‘t remember why I didn‘t really even start it last time.

I feel like this image perfectly describes me reading this book. I had highlighted things, notebooks, tablets, and a cat while reading this. It was heavy but so interesting. I have more questions than I started with, a distrust in our system, but also a glimpse of hope for the future.
Every once in a while I want a book that makes me dig deeper, this was that book.

My morning. Time to switch books. The heavy subject matter of this has me reading for shorter amounts of time.

A very thought-provoking book about how we understand, diagnose and treat mental illness. Cahalan has a unique perspective given her history of “madness” detailed in her first book “Brain On Fire.” What she discovers about a pivotal psychological experiment from the 1970s will leave you wondering if we really know anything about mental illness at all. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

#Challenge2021 #Recommendsday

5⭐️

🤯Wow! Lots of food for thought🤔💭 This is one that I look forward to re-reading. There are also a number of other mentioned writings that I may also check out.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
It took me a long time to finish this book, despite the fascinating premise. The first 2/3 of the book are dry, repetitive, and are just a retelling of Rosenhan‘s study. The last 1/3 or so picked up the pace and it evolved into more of an exposé. I wish there was more information on other problematic studies, as well as their effects on the field. I only recommend this book to those concerned with the issues in modern mental health fields.

🔮I predict...there will be many to quotes to come. I‘m sorry (in advance)😬🤣

“Taunted by death, chilled by the unknown, reproached by ambiguity, we doctors defy the dark, brandishing whatever truthiness we might have at our disposal. Humours, meridians, alchemy, or molecular biology, our scientific beliefs themselves are not as important as is the slim and ultimately betraying comfort they provide.” -Rita Charon and Peter Wyer “The Art of Medicine,” Lancert

It‘s been a a good minute since I‘ve picked up a book and was extremely invested in it. I am currently reading every article this book mentions so I can get a “behind the scenes” look at what it‘s truly about. Psychiatry has always interested me and it‘s a major field I have always wanted to get into and this just makes that interest intensify! It‘s so cool to see how over the course of years how, one man, changed so much in what mental health is.

It was a busy day getting the Christmas decorations down from the attic and put out around the house. My hubby did the outside and now we just need a tree 🌲 perfect way to finish this book. I loved this book!! SC is a great and thorough writer! I read her first one “Brain on Fire” and listened to this one, read by her. We have come so far with mental health but we have so far to go ❤️

Happy Fry-Yay Littens! Did you do any BF book shopping? I did not. We did buy all these fries tonight to support Ronald McDonald House, from November 10-30 fry sales support RMHC so we have made it a habit to buy them on Fry-days as part of our dinner. I‘m going to be sad next week 🤣 ( I‘m 71% done this book and tomorrow is my last day, that‘s the one drawback to borrowed audio books, the auto returning 😢)

Waiting in the mall parking lot for the teenager to finish his Christmas shopping. I‘m impressed that he is this organized to shop early. Also I am loving this book

I loved Brain on Fire

Late again, but here we go! Thanks for the tag @Andrew65

1. I‘ve amassed a cute little collection😏 over the years. I‘ve got an electric one (2019🎄🎁), a 12lbs (5.44kg) weighted one, a quilted one, knit ones, some created by friends & family & others I‘ve been gifted. I use them year round😝

2. Tagged book has been screaming😱 at me for months.

....yikes.

As someone who both is mentally ill (anxiety) and studied psychology, I was rather offended by Cahalan‘s views. She holds the view of psychiatry that stops many people from seeking treatment—that psychiatrists don‘t actually help, that treatment is “dangerous”, cold-hearted, and without actual care for the patients. This is NOT how mental health professionals are trained in the modern era. Continued in comments—

Thanks to @Squidget for bringing this book to my attention.

Psychology has always interested me (forever ago it was my minor in college till I switched it to sociology cause Freud) so I was excited about this one. It was very informative-though not in the way I thought it would be. Really good and highly recommend.

I enjoyed this deep dive into an old study on psychiatric institutions, the look at what really happened to bring about that study, and the real world outcomes we still deal with today. Good read and quality investigative reporting.

Go ahead. Try to prove you're sane. I'll wait.

If you don‘t know the story of Rosenhan and his study, then saying too much would spoil this book. It has twists and turns. It‘s a bit of a trip. Overall, I enjoyed it and found the material fascinating. Occasionally, when the author spoke about her own circumstances, I found the writing to be tonally bizarre. However, these moments were infrequent.

Bookworm problem #1: Choosing your next read. I want to start them all at the same time! Decisions, decisions, decisions! 😬🤯🤦🏻‍♀️📚🎶😻 #LitsyAtoZ #AbecedarianTBR

Book 3 of 2020

Part rehash of Brain On Fire with some comments on the current state of psychiatry and a lot about an undercover study from 50 years ago. She spends most of the book obsessively trying to track down people who were involved in a Stanford experiment that sent seven healthy people into to various mental hospitals to see what happened. She never finds any of them and seems to annoy everyone she contacts, so it‘s hard to care about her search.

This book was a bit of a muddle for me. I felt like it couldn‘t decide whether to be an indictment of the current state of mental health care in the US or an exploration of a groundbreaking psychiatric study that may not have been what it seemed. It has some really interesting parts that I enjoyed, but I wanted a clearer thesis.

Audiobooking while crocheting a scarf for my 90 y/o neighbor. Found out he‘s been hesitant to use his heater because he can‘t afford the electricity. Also working with LADWP to get him reduced rates, but that‘s going to take some time. He refuses help from any government services because he fears “socialist commies”. Sigh.

December 2019 - Book 6 // As a daughter of a loving and beautiful, schizophrenic and over-prescribed mother who ultimately committed suicide...I can‘t explain how thrilled I am to read this one!

The Great Reading Slump of 2019 has finally ended! I was ambivalent about this book until the final 2 chapters when Cahalan starts preaching about our mental health crisis. And then I was 💯 % on board!! This is a good book for hesitant non-fiction readers because there are detective novel elements but also great narrative memoir and interesting characters/people. The story meanders at times, but the conclusion is strong! Recommended read! #botm

I was a fan of her first book, and I‘m now a fan of her second. There is more research on this book, which makes it bit denser read in this one than her first. However, from my own experience as a law enforcement officer, she hit the nail on the head with our current problems with mental illness. I highly encourage everyone to read The Great Pretender.

A highly anticipated 2020 read!

Picked this one up at the Hachette Book Club Brunch after listening to Susannah Cahalan's talk. So excited to dive in!

The Great Pretender is an interesting and an eye-opening book about the way we understand mental health. What is mental illness? How do we define and diagnose mental illness? "If sanity and insanity exist, how shall we know them?" This book explores this question by focusing on the 1973 groundbreaking study by Dr. David Rosenhan.

Rating: 3.5⭐

For my full review please visit https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3055117389

This! This right here is what I have been trying to tell people. People don‘t like the idea of institutions but they do not want to run elbows with mental illness when they walk down the street. ERs and police are not the social support system for mental illness that people think they are. The system is broken and those with mental illness are suffering the most

Spending a super windy fall day curled up in my favorite chair with a book and a cup of coffee. My house is quiet, and I‘ve been reading for three hours straight. This is a rare and beautiful morning.

Cozy rainy Saturday night reading about madness #dogsoflitsy

“naive realism” -a way of viewing the world that refuses to acknowledge that everyone experiences realities differently.

This was a goodreads win which was awesome as I loved Brain on Fire. Interesting history/study of mental health hospitalizations. #TIL developing the DSM was a mess!
#nfnov @Clwojick @rsteve388

Last summer I listened to Brain On Fire and was horrified and riveted while listening. When I saw Calahan‘s latest was a November #BOTM choice, I was so excited to get it! And I was hooked- I think I read it with a pen and a notebook in my hand for most of it- unless someone was (un)lucky enough to be in the room while I read- then I shared passages, anecdotes and facts directly! I can‘t wait to see what she will tackle next!!

Pretty good

Current read. I loved Brain on Fire and am excited to start this one!

Starting book #116

A fascinating look at research that profoundly changed psychiatry researched by the “”Brain on Fire” author so it‘s wonderfully unbiased and well researched.

A wonderfully creepy #audiobook on this beautiful fall day

Just picked this up at my library today. It's on my want-to-reads list.