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Mad Science: Psychiatric Coercion, Diagnosis, and Drugs
Mad Science argues that the fundamental claims of modern American psychiatry are based on misconceived, flawed, and distorted science. The authors address multiple paradoxes in American mental health, including the remaking of coercion into scientific psychiatric treatment in the community, the adoption of an unscientific diagnostic system that now controls the distribution of services, and how drug treatments have failed to improve the mental health outcome.
- GenresPsychologyMental Health
358 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 2, 2026
"Not surprisingly, the amount spent on what are called mental health ser-
vices has also exploded, from about $1 billion in 1956 (Frank & Glied, 2006)
to $113 billion today (Garfield, 2011)."
"Many psychiatric authorities claim that these developments are signs of
major medical progress: the growing humanitarianism of an enlightened soci-
ety caring for those in need; the advances in methods of accurately identifying
and diagnosing all those suffering from psychiatric illness; and the scientific
breakthroughs in understanding and treating mental illness biochemically.
If this grand explanation of progress was accurate, then the following
should also be true. There would be less mental illness in America now than
in 1950. Those with mental illness would be much more likely to recover
with treatment than before. Those who are now called the severely mentally
ill, who formerly would have been involuntarily committed to state asylums,
would now be more effectively and humanely treated. The use of coercion
as a psychiatric intervention would be a method of the distant past. The
techniques of diagnosing mental illness would be more accurate, and valid,
than methods used previously. Diagnosis would rest on biological markers
rather than conversation as the “biological basis” of the currently more than
three hundred types of mental illnesses would have been substantiated or
disconfirmed. As a result, the remaining actual bodily illnesses formerly called
mental illnesses or mental disorders would be the concern of medical special-
ties such as neurology or endocrinology. We would have confirmed methods
of preventing and curing these illness that could be employed by any mental
health practitioner. With at least one in four American women and one in
seven American men today receiving psychoactive drugs by prescription,
there would be solid evidence that these drugs effectively treat the problems
for which the Food and Drug Administration approves them.
!!!!!>>>If you believe that even one of the above signs of progress has occurred,
the review and analysis presented in Mad Science will be eye-opening, if not
disturbing. None of these confirming developments has occurred.<<<
Of course, many in the public and in the mental health professions think that major
“advances” in diagnosis and treatments of mental disorders have occurred and
are continually occurring. Agencies such as the National Institute of Mental
Health and organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association regu-
larly tout such advances, which are then widely echoed by the media. Many,
perhaps a majority of adults today, believe that the problem of mental illness
is fundamentally a medical problem whose solution lies, through conventional
medical research, in identifying its causes and devising effective treatments
(e.g., targeting brains and genes). Most people view modern drug treatments
as an undisputed improvement (more effective and safer) over any previous
interventions designed for those considered mentally ill. Moreover, many
people believe (or perhaps merely hope) that those labeled severely mentally
ill—and those who treat them—now operate in an atmosphere of cooperation
without the use coercion.
In this book we offer a radically different interpretation of the character
of the massive American psychiatric and mental health expansion and how it
came to be. The discrepancy between the views held by the public and many
professionals on the one hand and the actual evidence on the other hand
brought the authors of this book together.
vices has also exploded, from about $1 billion in 1956 (Frank & Glied, 2006)
to $113 billion today (Garfield, 2011)."
"Many psychiatric authorities claim that these developments are signs of
major medical progress: the growing humanitarianism of an enlightened soci-
ety caring for those in need; the advances in methods of accurately identifying
and diagnosing all those suffering from psychiatric illness; and the scientific
breakthroughs in understanding and treating mental illness biochemically.
If this grand explanation of progress was accurate, then the following
should also be true. There would be less mental illness in America now than
in 1950. Those with mental illness would be much more likely to recover
with treatment than before. Those who are now called the severely mentally
ill, who formerly would have been involuntarily committed to state asylums,
would now be more effectively and humanely treated. The use of coercion
as a psychiatric intervention would be a method of the distant past. The
techniques of diagnosing mental illness would be more accurate, and valid,
than methods used previously. Diagnosis would rest on biological markers
rather than conversation as the “biological basis” of the currently more than
three hundred types of mental illnesses would have been substantiated or
disconfirmed. As a result, the remaining actual bodily illnesses formerly called
mental illnesses or mental disorders would be the concern of medical special-
ties such as neurology or endocrinology. We would have confirmed methods
of preventing and curing these illness that could be employed by any mental
health practitioner. With at least one in four American women and one in
seven American men today receiving psychoactive drugs by prescription,
there would be solid evidence that these drugs effectively treat the problems
for which the Food and Drug Administration approves them.
!!!!!>>>If you believe that even one of the above signs of progress has occurred,
the review and analysis presented in Mad Science will be eye-opening, if not
disturbing. None of these confirming developments has occurred.<<<
Of course, many in the public and in the mental health professions think that major
“advances” in diagnosis and treatments of mental disorders have occurred and
are continually occurring. Agencies such as the National Institute of Mental
Health and organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association regu-
larly tout such advances, which are then widely echoed by the media. Many,
perhaps a majority of adults today, believe that the problem of mental illness
is fundamentally a medical problem whose solution lies, through conventional
medical research, in identifying its causes and devising effective treatments
(e.g., targeting brains and genes). Most people view modern drug treatments
as an undisputed improvement (more effective and safer) over any previous
interventions designed for those considered mentally ill. Moreover, many
people believe (or perhaps merely hope) that those labeled severely mentally
ill—and those who treat them—now operate in an atmosphere of cooperation
without the use coercion.
In this book we offer a radically different interpretation of the character
of the massive American psychiatric and mental health expansion and how it
came to be. The discrepancy between the views held by the public and many
professionals on the one hand and the actual evidence on the other hand
brought the authors of this book together.
April 11, 2025
Transformed how I view the world of "mental health". A must read for those who wish to be in the "helping professions".
December 25, 2014
This is a profoundly enlightening book. It gathers information and research from many different directions to critique the stranglehold of psychiatric coercion upon modern society. Among my top ten must reads on the topic on mental health and psychiatric treatment.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews