Image - detail from book cover
Past Event

Psychiatry and Its Discontents

Written by one of the world’s most distinguished historians of psychiatry, Psychiatry and Its Discontents provides a wide-ranging and critical perspective on the profession that dominates the treatment of mental illness. Andrew Scull traces the rise of the field, the midcentury hegemony of psychoanalytic methods, and the paradigm’s decline with the ascendance of biological and pharmaceutical approaches to mental illness.

Scull's historical sweep is broad, ranging from the age of the asylum to the rise of psychopharmacology and the dubious triumphs of “community care.” The essays in Psychiatry and Its Discontents provide a vivid and compelling portrait of the recurring crises of legitimacy experienced by “mad-doctors,” as psychiatrists were once called, and illustrates the impact of psychiatry’s ideas and interventions on the lives of those afflicted with mental illness.

About the Speaker

Dr. Andrew Scull was educated at Oxford, Princeton and University College London; he is the author of more than a dozen books on mental illness and is widely regarded as one of the world's leading historians of psychiatry. Currently a distinguished research professor of sociology and science studies, he has also held faculty positions at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, and has been the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, among others. His work has been translated into 200 languages, and his most recent book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in history. A past president of the Society for the Social History of Medicine, he has appeared on television and radio on multiple occasions in North America, Europe and Australia.

MLF Organizer
Patrick O'Reilly
Notes

A Psychology Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

Main image is detail from cover of Psychiatry and Its Discontents.

August 2, 2022

The Commonwealth Club of California
110 The Embarcadero
Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States

Speakers

Dr. Andrew Scull

Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology and Science Studies, University of California San Diego

Image - Patrick O'Reilly

Patrick O'Reilly

Ph.D., Chair, Psychology Member-led Forum, The Commonwealth Club of California—Moderator