Andrew Scull is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He has written extensively on the history of psychiatry for more than three decades. His previous publications include Museums of Madness: The Social Organization of Insanity in 19th Century England (Penguin, 1982), The Most Solitary of Afflictions: Madness and Society in Britain, 1700–1900 (Yale, 1993), and Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine (Yale, 2005). He also writes regularly for the TLS and for such journals as The Lancet and Brain.