This book was on my TBR shelf for four years, and after finishing it I think my instincts were good. It is over 600 pages of closely spaced text that could have done with some severe editing; seriously, this was a mission to finish. Why? with subject matter like two young enthusiastic doctors in the 1860's who decide they have to find out how the mind works, and what causes mental illness? They become "mad-doctors" in charge of "lunatics" and over their lifetimes their careers and families develop. Along the way there is a pivotal mis-diagnosis that changes everything.It could have been amazing, but there are tedious diatribes on outdated theories (albeit well-researched) and sub-plots which appear to add little to the story (eg the trip to Africa which although interesting served, as far as I could see, to add one small argument to one of the lengthy lectures which is printed in its entirety). From a time when hysteria was an accepted diagnosis, and the study of phrenology a new science, we can perhaps not learn that much.
One of them concludes that perhaps madness is the price we pay for being human.
I learnt that perhaps it would be better to give up on a book that seems a chore, rather than push on to the end. There's probably a DSM IV diagnosis for that now.....