Books
Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present
Running for shelter
Lisa AppignanesiVirago, 541pp, £20,
Anthony Daniels looks at two books on psychiatry
In short, in many respects DSM IV represents a regression of knowledge rather than an accretion of it. This does not mean that it will be replaced soon by something better, for powerful vested interests have now developed to prevent it. Although the pharmaceutical companies did not influence the development of DSM IV, it has been an immense boon to them, for under its auspices almost all human behaviour becomes a medical condition potentially treatable with medications; lawyers love it because it makes so many events actionable under tort law; governments love it because unhappiness becomes an illness rather than a natural consequence of social arrangements; and patients love it because it absolves them of the painful responsibilities of their own humanity.
In short, this is a brilliant book with a significance well beyond its narrow but important subject. It will be ignored.
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Stars bright and dim
Philip HensherState by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey
How to write a wrong
Allan Massie‘When young lips have drunk deep of the bitter waters of Hate, Suspicion and Despair, all the Love in the world will not wholly take away that knowledge.’
The power of the evasive word
Michael HowardThe Economist Book of Obituaries, by Keith Colquhoun and Ann Wroe
Deadlier than the male
Andrew TaylorWhen does a novel stop being a novel and become a crime story? It’s often assumed that there is an unbridgeable gap between them, but that’s not necessarily so.
Not just Hitler
Edward HarrisonThe Third Reich at War, 1939-1945, by Richard L. Evans
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TDK
March 20th, 2008 12:21pmThere is no link to (or mention of) "The Loss of Sadness" in the article header. That is a pity because anyone searching for this review will not find it.