Excellent book about the relationships betweeen physician and patient over the past couple hundred years with a focus on prevailing theories of the time for treating psychosomatic problems. Some interesting accounts of how hysterectomies, psychotherapy, and psychoropic pharmacology have all been used. He presents some compelling ideas about how there has been little change in the iincidence of psychosomatic disease over the past hundred years contrary to prevailing notions.

If you don't wince over and over again reading this book, then you're not human. This is a horrifying but very worthy book about changing (and unchanging) attitudes to women's bodies throughout the ages, mostly focusing on pregnancy, childbirth, and menstruation.

Hardcore feminists might not like the way Shorter glosses over the problems of the present day, but the historical work is so excellent and insightful - and so fastidiously researched and footnoted - that I'm prepared to overlook this.

This book will make you uncomfortable in more ways than one, but it's a book no-one should miss.

a wonderful book by a man, who outlived the ups and downs of life... his language touches the soul, his experiences tell of being itself, ranging from years in prison to knowing the biggest in business.
it is a pity that this book is out of print.

This book is a one-sided polemic. The author clearly believes that only the "biological" approach to psychiatry is worth anything, but instead of presenting his case as an honest argument, he gives us a weighted, colored, and biased view of history. I was very disappointed.

Shorter's book is an important addition to the history of psychiatry. It falls short because of Shorter's "over kill" in his polemic against psychoanalysis. The Freudian perspective needs thoughtful criticism, but Shorter's attacks become carping. Psychoanalysis has made important cultural contributions, and many people have received benefit from the analyst's couch. Good history should have a direction, even a perspective. But Shorter's history would have been better served with a calmer and more balanced voice.

This book is a well written acount of the development of psychiatry through the ages. It shows in great detail (sometimes too much, hence only 4 stars) the rise, fall and rise of biological psychiatry. Especially the part of the second rise and the decline of psychoanalysis is a must read for everyone interested in this subject. After reading this book everyone should understand that there is only one side to psychiatry and that is the biological side.

The author has successfully applied an historian's long range perspective to currents fads and trends in health care. His view will save us from the laughter of our grandchildren and perhaps keep us and them from making the same mistakes over and over. This is history that is useful today. History as a prescription for todays ills.