What is Madness?

Madness, in our culture, is defined by visibility. From the popular press to TV soaps and films, the depiction of madness always borders on the extreme: violent outbursts, fits, hallucinations. But what if madness is not exactly what we think it to be? What if it is the rule rather than the exception? And what if its defining features are not visible and dramatic but, on the contrary, highly discreet, shared by average citizens who will never come to psychiatric attention? What if, in other words, there is a difference between being mad and going mad? Beginning and ending with the case of Harold Shipman - a mass-murderer so apparently 'normal' that some of his patients said they would still be treated by him even after his conviction - psychoanalyst Darian Leader explores the idea of discreet madness, and argues that it is only through revising our concept of what madness is that we will have the tools to help those who have gone mad to rebuild their lives.

ISBN 0241144884   Pages 368 ISBN13 9780241144886 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 625 Publisher Penguin Books Ltd   Published in London Imprint Hamish Hamilton Ltd   Height (mm) 240 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 162 Publication date 06 Oct 2011   Spine width (mm) 33 DEWEY 616.89   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

In this important, lucid book, psychoanalyst asks us revise the concept of madness ... Leader is as much a philosopher as a psychoanalyst and his ideas are engrossing and enlightening Metro Wonderful Bookseller The mad ... have been segregated and often confined; for fear, perhaps, that they will contaminate the rest of us. But as Darain Leader brilliantly shows, things are never so simple -- Hanif Kureshi Independent What is Madness? is a humane and timely book New Statesman [Says] something that very much needs to be said Irish Times Leader, psychoanalyst and witty, probing writer, explores the long history of misunderstanding and mistreatment that shaped our views of mental distress. Consult him for a myth-busting diagnosis of the method in our madness Independent

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