NEW

The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness

Susannah Cahalan
Offered By:

Thorndike Press

Thorndike Press is a leading publisher of large-print books. The company publishes more than 1,100 new large print titles each year, with the vast majority focused on large-print editions of current bestsellers and genre fiction.
ISBN-10: 1432878913
ISBN-13: 9781432878917
DDC: 362.2
Shipping Weight: 1.75 lbs ( .79 kgs)
682 Pages | Hardcover
Published/Released August 2020
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Nonfiction - Large Print Standing Order Plan

Option Number: [2]

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About

Overview

A #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
Named One of the Top 100 Must-Read Books of 2019 by TIME Magazine
Named a Best Book of the Month by the New York Times, Washington Post, O Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Business Insider, Refinery29, Bustle, CrimeReads, Popsugar, and PureWow
Named a Best Book of the Fall by Kirkus, Bookish, and LitHub

In the 1970s a Stanford psychologist named David Rosenhan and seven other people went undercover into asylums around America to test the legitimacy of psychiatry’s labels. All eight emerged with alarming diagnoses and even more troubling stories of their treatment. Rosenhan’s watershed study broke open the field of psychiatry, closing down institutions and changing mental health diagnosis forever. But, as Cahalan’s explosive new research shows in this real-life detective story, very little in this saga is exactly as it seems. What really happened behind those closed asylum doors?

Reviews

Customer Reviews

“The Great Pretender reads like a detective story, with Cahalan revealing tantalizing clues at opportune moments so we can experience the thrills of discovery alongside her . . . What she unearthed turned out to be far stranger, as documented in her absorbing new book, The Great Pretender. It’s the kind of story that has levels to it, only instead of a townhouse it’s more like an Escher print. On one level: A profile of Rosenhan and his study. On another: Cahalan’s own experience of researching the book. And on a third: The fraught history of psychiatry and the pursuit of scientific knowledge."
— The New York Times

“Cahalan’s research is dogged and her narrative riveting, leading us from red herring to clue and back with the dexterity of the best mystery novelists. Then she builds her case like a skilled prosecuting attorney."
— New York Journal of Books

“A thrilling mystery and a powerful case for a deeper understanding of mental illness.”
— People

“Cahalan’s passionate and exhaustive reexamination of the famous research ‘On Being Sane in Insane Places’ by Stanford psychologist David Rosenhan is a riveting read . . . A terrific piece of detective work [with] fascinating insights into the mental health controversies that have swirled ever since the study’s publication.”
— Forbes