On the Heels of Ignorance: Psychiatry and the Politics of Not Knowing (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226616384)

Psychiatry has always aimed to peer deep into the human mind, daring to cast light on its darkest corners and untangle its thorniest knots, often invoking the latest medical science in doing so. But, as Owen Whooley's sweeping new book tells us, the history of American psychiatry is really a record of ignorance. On the Heels of Ignorance begins with psychiatry's formal inception in the 1840s and moves through two centuries of constant struggle simply to define and redefine mental illness, to say nothing of the best way to treat it. Whooley's book is no antipsychiatric screed, however; instead, he reveals a field that has muddled through periodic reinventions and conflicting agendas of curiosity, compassion, and professional striving. On the Heels of Ignorance draws from intellectual history and the sociology of professions to portray an ongoing human effort to make sense of complex mental phenomena using an imperfect set of tools, with sometimes tragic results.

Author: Owen Whooley
ISBN-10: 022661638X
ISBN-13: 9780226616384
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 04/23/2019
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2019