The Great Pretender, Susannah Cahalan
The Great Pretender, Susannah Cahalan
4 Rating(s)
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
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The Great Pretender
The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness

Author: Susannah Cahalan

Narrator: Christie Moreau, Susannah Cahalan

Unabridged: 11 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/05/2019

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

"One of America's most courageous young journalists" and the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Brain on Fire investigates the shocking mystery behind the dramatic experiment that revolutionized modern medicine (NPR).

Doctors have struggled for centuries to define insanity--how do you diagnose it, how do you treat it, how do you even know what it is? In search of an answer, in the 1970s a Stanford psychologist named David Rosenhan and seven other people--sane, healthy, well-adjusted members of society--went undercover into asylums around America to test the legitimacy of psychiatry's labels. Forced to remain inside until they'd "proven" themselves sane, all eight emerged with alarming diagnoses and even more troubling stories of their treatment. Rosenhan's watershed study broke open the field of psychiatry, closing down institutions and changing mental health diagnosis forever.

But, as Cahalan's explosive new research shows in this real-life detective story, very little in this saga is exactly as it seems. What really happened behind those closed asylum doors?

About Susannah Cahalan

Susannah Cahalan is an award-winning #1 New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and public speaker. Her 2012 memoir, Brain on Fire has sold over a million copies and was made into a Netflix original movie. Her second book, The Great Pretender was shortlisted for the 2020 Royal Society’s Science Book Prize. She has written for The New York Times, New York Post, Elle, The New Scientist, and BBC’s Focus, as well as academic journals The Lancet and Biological Psychiatry. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and twin toddlers.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Susannah on July 24, 2019

A writer friend always rates her own books. She explained that if she doesn’t love her own book enough to give it five stars, how can she expect anyone else to do the same? I like this mentality so here I go!......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on October 31, 2019

Have read Susannah Cahalan’s deeply personal memoir, Brain on Fire? She has followed-up that best-selling book with The Great Pretender, which exposes the suspenseful mystery behind an experiment that shaped modern medicine and mental health as we know it today. David Rosenhan and his brave colleagu......more

Goodreads review by Jenna on December 09, 2019

If you’re going into this book expecting an in-depth rehashing of the Rosenhan experiment and its conclusions, you may be disappointed. I hold a BA in psychology, so I was already somewhat familiar with this study going into the book. While I did get some new information from The Great Pretender, it......more

Goodreads review by Sierra on December 04, 2019

I love non-fiction. I love psychology. I thought I was going to love this book. I was wrong. I hate that I found this book so very disappointing. The author states the book is about Rosenhan and his pseudopatient study which I was excited to learn more about after it was mentioned briefly during my u......more

Goodreads review by Ashley on January 21, 2020

When I read Brain on Fire, Susannah Cahalan's memoir about her experience with psychosis, I became a little obsessed with it. (The Netflix adaptation was disappointing, as the clever hook in the book was her investigating her own illness from an outside perspective, something she could do as she los......more

Quotes

Named One of the Top 100 Must-Read Books of 2019 by TIME Magazine
Named a Best Book of the Month by the New York Times, Washington Post, O Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Business Insider, Refinery29, Bustle, CrimeReads, Popsugar, and PureWow

Named a Best Book of the Fall by Kirkus, Bookish, and LitHub

"This is a well-crafted, gripping narrative that succeeds on many levels. Cahalan, who gained the trust of Rosenhan's family, is meticulous and sensitive in her research; compelling and insightful in her writing."—The Financial Times

"[A]n impressive feat of investigative journalism--tenaciously conduct, appealingly written... as compelling as a detective novel."—The Economist

"A sharp investigation into how human self-interest, weaknesses, and egos can shape the way that science proceeds."—Undark

"A fascinating, potent, and crucial read."—Buzzfeed

"A stranger-than-fiction thrill ride exposing the loose screws of our broken mental health system."—O Magazine, Best Books of December

"Cahalan's passionate and exhaustive reexamination of the famous research 'On Being Sane in Insane Places' by Stanford psychologist David Rosenhan is a riveting read...A terrific piece of detective work [with] fascinating insights into the mental health controversies that have swirled ever since the study's publication."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Forbes

"The Great Pretender reads like a detective story, with Cahalan revealing tantalizing clues at opportune moments so we can experience the thrills of discovery alongside her...What she unearthed turned out to be far stranger, as documented in her absorbing new book, The Great Pretender. It's the kind of story that has levels to it, only instead of a townhouse it's more like an Escher print. On one level: A profile of Rosenhan and his study. On another: Cahalan's own experience of researching the book. And on a third: The fraught history of psychiatry and the pursuit of scientific knowledge."—New York Times

"Cahalan's research is dogged and her narrative riveting, leading us from red herring to clue and back with the dexterity of the best mystery novelists. Then she builds her case like a skilled prosecuting attorney."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}New York Journal of Books

"A thrilling mystery--and a powerful case for a deeper understanding of mental illness."—People Magazine

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