American psychiatry: a tortured history

From the earliest asylums that sold themselves as restorative “retreats”, to the damaging vogue for lobotomies and electric shock therapy, psychiatry in America has gone through many iterations since its origins in the 18th century. Andrew Scull, author of Desperate Remedies, speaks to Rhiannon Davies about the discipline’s complex history.

Andrew Scull is the author of Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness (Belknap Press, 2022)