Why read Psychiatry Under the Influence?

Book cover of Psychiatry Under the Influence: Institutional Corruption, Social Injury, and Prescriptions for Reform

Book description

Psychiatry Under the Influence investigates the actions and practices of the American Psychiatric Association and academic psychiatry in the United States, and presents it as a case study of institutional corruption.

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Why read it?

1 author picked Psychiatry Under the Influence as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Peter A. Swenson

Author

I was deeply impressed by how Psychiatry Under the Influence combines medical history, clinical knowledge, and investigative journalism about pervasive institutional conflicts of interest in medicine.

In Whitaker’s and Cosgrove’s case study of “institutional corruption” they trace the development over time of an alignment of the psychiatric profession’s “guild interests” in turf maximization and scientific legitimation with drug companies’ drive to market a widening array of drugs massively profitable drugs.

It is a fascinating illustration of the medicalization of life resulting from what I would call the “commercial construction of disease.”

Particularly eye-opening was the role of the American Psychiatric…

From Peter's list on The best books about the entanglement of medicine, politics, and pharmaceuticals.