Customer Reviews

Ten Years That Changed the Face of Mental Illness

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an idiosyncratic, lively, and very personal book about the discovery of medication useful in the treatment of psychiatric illnesses.

The 1950's were an amazing decade for psychiatry. Until then there were no safe and effective medications. In one decade the following agents were introduced: lithium (well, just before the `50's), chlorpromazine, iproniazid, imipramine, and chlordiazepoxide.

Jean Thuillier was working at the Sainte-Anne Psychiatric Centre in Paris, saw it all and knew all the major players it seems. He relates many anecdotes about a wide variety of topics.

Researchers were cowboys in those years. They had no concerns about regulations or rules or fulfilling agency requirements. They combined clinical and laboratory research in a free wheeling and highly productive way. Some will note that our much more cautious ways today have produced few significant discoveries...On the other hand our subjects are (I hope) treated much better than some of the unfortunate subjects described by Thuillier.

Thuillier relates charming anecdotes about many of the people who made important contributions to psychiatry: Manfred Sakel, Henri Ey, Jacques Lacan, Julius Axelrod, to name a few. Despair of ever understanding a sentence by Lacan? Read this book and feel "validated"

Those with an interest in medicine as well as food will enjoy Thuillier's account of the connection between sweetened herring, mayonnaise, and fried potatos in Scandinavia and the discovery of lithium.

Recommended for those with an interest in the history of the development of medication in psychiatry.