Review
A riveting read for anyone looking for a window into the world of mental disorder... --Professor Robert Howard, Dean, The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Most books on mental disorder are either polemical or over-technical. This remarkable book by contrast provides a highly readable and at the same time authoritative account that by combining literary and scientific sources shows the deep connections between 'madness' and some of our most important attributes as human beings. --Professor Bill Fulford, University of Oxford
Burton somehow avoids oversimplification. This is all the more remarkable, since his scope is fairly all-embracing, switching smoothly from side-effects of lithium to the nature of existential anxiety, to the quest for meaning in life... His writing is frequently almost poetic, yet he is capable of being crisply definitive... Ultimately this is a work of contradictions, an undemanding read that could challenge your view of the world. --Medical Journalists' Association
Most books on mental disorder are either polemical or over-technical. This remarkable book by contrast provides a highly readable and at the same time authoritative account that by combining literary and scientific sources shows the deep connections between 'madness' and some of our most important attributes as human beings. --Professor Bill Fulford, University of Oxford
Burton somehow avoids oversimplification. This is all the more remarkable, since his scope is fairly all-embracing, switching smoothly from side-effects of lithium to the nature of existential anxiety, to the quest for meaning in life... His writing is frequently almost poetic, yet he is capable of being crisply definitive... Ultimately this is a work of contradictions, an undemanding read that could challenge your view of the world. --Medical Journalists' Association
Review
Most books on mental disorder are either polemical or over-technical. This remarkable book by contrast provides a highly readable and at the same time authoritative account that by combining literary, philosophical and scientific sources, shows the deep connections between 'madness' and some of our most important attributes as human beings.
