‘Shrinks’ Tells Of Desperate Early Cures
22:58 minutes
In Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry, psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman documents the profession’s early days—a time when malaria was considered an effective cure for mental illness. The so-called “fever cure” even won its inventor a Nobel Prize, as did the technique of lobotomy. But not all early psychiatric treatments were destined to be cast aside. Electroconvulsive therapy is still in use today, and, as Lieberman writes, a great body of evidence supports its efficacy. Read an excerpt here.
Segment Guests
Jeffrey Lieberman
Jeffrey A. Lieberman, MD, is the Lawrence C. Kolb Professor and Chairman of Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Meet the Producer
About Christopher Intagliata
@cintagliataChristopher Intagliata was Science Friday’s senior producer. He once served as a prop in an optical illusion and speaks passable Ira Flatowese.