Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

Robert Whitaker

Mad in America exposes how psychiatry’s treatments—past and present—have often harmed rather than helped those labeled mentally ill. Blending history, journalism, and analysis, he challenges the myths of medical progress and calls for a more humane, evidence-based approach to mental health care.

Committed: The Battle over Involuntary Psychiatric Care

Dinah Miller, Annette Hanson, & Pete Earley

Explores the controversies around involuntary psychiatric treatment in the U.S. Includes case studies, legal history, and interviews with patients, families, clinicians, and advocates. Examines seclusion, restraint, involuntary medication, and the tension between civil liberties and public safety.

Narratives of Recovery from Serious Mental Illness

William Tucker

Presents recovery stories of twelve patients with serious mental illnesses. Highlights misdiagnosis, dual diagnoses, homelessness, unemployment, and medication challenges. Shows how outreach psychiatry and patient resilience can support recovery.

Recovery and Wellness: Models of Hope and Empowerment for People with Mental Illness

Catana Brown

Drawing from recovery and occupational therapy models, it emphasizes self-determination, community connection, and the idea that wellness is a process guided by personal meaning and empowerment. The book offers practical and philosophical approaches to help individuals reclaim control over their lives and define recovery not as a medical endpoint but as a self-directed journey toward fulfillment and balance.

Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness

Andrew Scull

A sweeping history of psychiatry in the U.S. over 200 years. Examines treatments, institutions, and diagnoses from asylums to drug therapies. Critically evaluates both the hopes and failures of psychiatric remedies.

Taking Over the Asylum: Empowerment and Mental Health

Marian Barnes & Ric Bowl

This book explores how people who use mental health services—often labeled “patients” or “consumers”—have organized to reclaim power, influence policy, and transform the mental health system itself. Through research, case studies, and activism, Barnes and Bowl show how collective action and self-advocacy challenge institutional hierarchies and promote dignity, choice, and equality.

The Sources and Development of Social and Community Psychiatry: Community Mental Health, Erich Lindemann, and Social Conscience in American Psychiatry

David G. Satin

Historical account of the rise, peak, and decline of social and community psychiatry in the U.S. Focuses on the role of ideology, social conscience, and Erich Lindemann in shaping psychiatric practice and community mental health.

The First Resort: The History of Social Psychiatry in the United States

Matthew Smith

Traces the history of social psychiatry in mid-20th century America. Examines how social, economic, and environmental factors influenced mental health policy and practice, and why social psychiatry eventually declined.

Talking Back to Psychiatry: The Psychiatric Consumer/Survivor/Ex-Patient Movement

Linda J. Morrison

This book documents the rise of the psychiatric survivor movement, a grassroots network of people who have experienced—and resisted—the harms of psychiatry. Blending sociology and oral history, she traces how former patients organized to challenge coercive treatment, reclaim their voices, and influence public discourse around “madness” and mental health.

Speaking Our Minds: An Anthology of Personal Experiences of Mental Distress and Its Consequences

Edited by Jim Read & Jill Reynolds

Anthology of writings from people who experienced mental distress and psychiatric treatment. Includes personal stories about diagnosis, coping, recovery, and the consequences of psychiatric involvement.