Is madness purely a medical condition that can be treated with drugs? Is there really a clear dividing line between mental health and mental illness—or is it not so easy to classify who is sane and who is insane?

In Madness Explained leading clinical psychologist Richard Bentall shatters the modern myths that surround psychosis. This groundbreaking work argues that we cannot define madness as an illness to be cured like any other; that labels such as ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘manic depression’ are meaningless, based on nineteenth-century classifications; and that experiences such as delusions and hearing voices are in fact exaggerations of the mental foibles to which we are all vulnerable.
 
We need, Bentall argues, a radically new way of thinking about psychiatric problems—one that does not reduce madness to brain chemistry, but understands and accepts it as part of human nature.

"A monumental study … brave, well-researched and accessible."  —Scotland on Sunday

"A radical new look at madness … Bentall’s approach gives all mental health professionals new reasons to listen to and talk to their patients." —Independent

"Bentall demystifies psychosis and restores the patient to a proper place with the rest of humankind."  —Aaron T. Beck