The Psychiatric Persuasion: Knowledge, Gender, and Power in Modern America

by Elizabeth Lunbeck

In the years between 1900 and 1930, American psychiatrists transformed their profession from a marginal science focused primarily on the care of the mentally ill into a powerful discipline concerned with analyzing the common difficulties of everyday life. How did psychiatrists effect such a dramatic change in their profession's fortunes and aims? Here, Elizabeth Lunbeck examines how psychiatry grew to take the whole world of human endeavor as its object.

Genres: Psychiatry, History, History Of Science

445 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Beth]

I picked this up expecting something far more technical than it turned out to be...Lunbeck's book is an interesting look at psychiatry during the early twentieth century, as psychiatry shifted from looking from abnormality to the problems of everyday life. She uses patient records from Boston to full advantage, and her narrative moves well. Highly recommended.