ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE SEED FOR this book was planted in the spring of 1998, when I met Vera Sharav at her home in New York City. She headed up Circare, a group composed primarily of parents of mentally ill children, and in the manner of a good journalist, she had used Freedom of Information requests to dig up documents that told of abuses in psychiatric research. Those documents sparked my curiosity, and so did her passion. She had the conviction of someone set on righting a wrong, and such conviction was infectious. I would never have done this book if I had not met her. Today, Vera heads a group called the Alliance for Human Research Protection.
That fall, I reported on psychiatric research for the Boston Globe. I owe a great deal of thanks to Dolores Kong, my collaborator on that series, and to Nils Bruzelius, its editor.
It was David Oaks, a psychiatric “survivor” and editor of the journal Mind Freedom, who then challenged me to look into the merits of modern drug treatments for schizophrenia. He did so in the manner of throwing down the gauntlet: Would I really be willing to investigate this? Three years later, I can say that I’m deeply grateful for his having done so. Wesley Alcorn, who in 1998 was president of NAMI’s (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) consumer council, similarly urged me to take a longer look at care of the mentally ill in this country.
Like anyone who writes a history, I went to school by reading the works of others who’ve written on the topic. In particular, I owe an intellectual debt to the following scholars: Andrew Scull, Nancy Tomes, Gerald Grob, Daniel Kevles, Allan Chase, Barry Mehler, Edward Shorter, Elliot Valenstein, Joel Braslow, Jack Pressman, Leonard Roy Frank, Mary Boyle, David Cohen, Peter Breggin, and Ann Braden Johnson. I am also grateful to Loren Mosher, who provided me with a wealth of documents related to the Soteria Project; similarly, Leonard Roy Frank provided me with a great deal of material on electroshock. A number of patients (or their parents) let me review personal and legal documents pertaining to their psychiatric care; Shalmah Prince, in particular, provided me with a detailed written record of her experience in psychiatric research.
Kevin Lang, my agent at Bedford Book Works, was instrumental in helping me shape my book proposal. My editor at Perseus, Amanda Cook, is every writer’s dream: She let me loose to tell the story I wanted to tell, and then after I’d turned in a first draft, she took out her editor’s pencil and in numerous ways big and small showed me how to improve the narrative and polish the text.
Finally, none of this would have been possible without the loving support of my wife, Andrea, who is forever patient with me, and whose reviews of the earliest drafts of the book were invaluable. And daily I counted my blessings for having three wonderful children, Rabi, Zoey, and Dylan.
