THE UNQUIET MIND

by William Sargant ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 1967

Dr. Sargant considers himself a ""physician in psychiatric medicine;"" he offers his autobiography as a mode of reviewing the development of psychiatry, particularly physiological psychiatry, in the past thirty years. A psychiatrist by chance--he served as a locum at a mental hospital, Hanwell, while recuperating from the aftermath of tuberculosis and responded actively to the suffering he saw there--Dr. Sargant is a proponent of the physiological basis of mental illness. Practicing in England and America, he found more resistance here, the psychoanalytic school dominant, although lobotomy was first tried in America. Dunkirk and the rest of the war presented an opportunity to study battle neuroses and psychoses, confirmed physical treatment approaches. Within the thirty year span of Dr. Sargant's career, a number of therapies have come into use, from electric shock to tranquilizers. A vigorous crusader, Dr. Sargent devastates the psychoanalytic school; he saves his mercy for his patients. The British orientation, the professional preoccupation, make this a somewhat special book.

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown-A.M.P.

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION