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9780063004900

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A profound and powerful work of essential reporting. . . . [Bergner] poses questions about the ethical challenges, complex social issues and other problems of modern biological psychiatry, and he makes a strong case that radical examination and change are urgently required. . . . It is with great skill that Bergner places [this] story in context of the history of modern psychiatry. -- New York Times Book Review [Written] with an unsparing eye and novelist's flair for storytelling. . . . [Bergner] sheds light on the long-running tension between biology-driven psychiatry and psychoanalysis, and lucidly examines alternative treatment options. . . . It all amounts to a compassionate, genre-spanning narrative that calls for less fixing, and more appreciation of and accommodations for many kinds of minds. This will leave readers with much to ponder. -- Publishers Weekly A personal and studied reckoning with 'the cost of our belief in biological psychiatry.' . . . An inescapably relevant and resonant journey into the impacts of our limited understanding of the mind. -- Kirkus Reviews Bergner pushes readers to question our society's demand to pathologize mental illness as the sole path towards destigmatizing it. Rather, he effectively argues for the need to view mental health through varied lenses, involving sociopolitical factors and centering the perspectives of those most impacted by these issues. -- Booklist A deeply reported critique of the medication revolution in psychiatry...[a] moving narrative...[a] deep dive into the history of psychiatric treatments... as Bergner shows in his well-crafted narrative, the longstanding belief that there is a pill (or a drug cocktail) for every psychiatric ill is little more than a widely shared delusion, which can sometimes make life even harder for those who turn to psychiatry for relief from their mental anguish. -- Undark The Mind and the Moon offers readers a critical, wide-ranging tour through the maze of modern biological psychiatry, interrogating some of its most widely accepted premises. Daniel Bergner's accounts of the struggles of three very different people, including his own brother, are overflowing with sensitivity, wisdom, heart, and soul. This is a work of hard-won perspective and intense empathy -- intimate and heartbreaking, deeply personal and lyrically powerful. -- Robert Kolker, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hidden Valley Road In book after book, Daniel Bergner has dramatized hard subjects--an American prison, a West African war, sexuality, race--with all the compassion and courage of a great writer. But he's outdone himself in The Mind and the Moon, where he explores the most perilous region of all and finds extraordinary suffering, beauty, and common humanity. This is a troubling, exhilarating work of science and high art. -- George Packer, author of Last Best Hope, Our Man, and The Unwinding Daniel Bergner's The Mind and the Moon asks us to look beyond psychiatric labels to see the human experience obscured by the diagnosis. Combining rigorous research and intimate storytelling, Bergner challenges the dominant belief that mental illness is the result of a 'broken brain' that can and must be fixed with medication. This book is both a sorely needed critique of the American mental health care system and a love song for the mad and neurodivergent. -- Grace M. Cho, author of National Book Award finalist Tastes Like War The Mind and the Moon is a brilliant, fascinating exploration of the relation between brain and mind, and a provocative rethinking of where psychiatry may have gone badly awry. Bergner's account of his subjects' struggles with depression and psychosis is vivid and humane. He raises important philosophical questions about the blurry line between mental health and mental illness, and about our limited understanding of what it means to be human. -- Scott Stossel, national editor of the Atlantic, and author of My Age of Anxiety

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Daniel Bergner is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and the author of five previous books of award-winning nonfiction: the New York Times bestselling Sing for Your Life, What Do Women Want?, The Other Side of Desire, In the Land of Magic Soldiers, and God of the Rodeo. His writing has also appeared in the Atlantic, Granta, Harper's Magazine, Mother Jones, Talk, and the New York Times Book Review.

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