** 'A tantalising mix of polemic and history, of ideology and fact. The underlying theme is that women are given labels and put into categories in part on the basis of being a. Mad, Bad And Sad by Lisa Appignanesi Warwick Prize for Writing, 2009 Buy Now: Buy direct from Virago Amazon Blackwells Foyles See All Hive Waterstones WHSmith Wordery Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781844082346 Price: £14. The book provides readers with a comprehensive viewpoint of what it means to be a woman in our society over time and how women have been categorized on the basis of gender. It is a remarkable achievement ( Adam Phillips) Reviews the book, Mad, bad, and sad: Women and the mind doctors by Lisa Appignanesi (see record 2008-04796-000). Because Appignanesi has a complex story to tell there is no blaming at work in this wonderful book, but a shrewd and sympathetic apprehension of what is at stake in the difficult histories of both the Mind Doctors and those they seek to help.

** 'Informative in startling ways, and never dull in the academic way, Appignanesi's genuinely new History of the Mind Doctors is a subtle and accessible account of that perhaps most daunting of modern relationships, the one between the Mind Doctor and his female patient. intelligent and academically rigorous ( OBSERVER) The triumph of MAD, BAD AND SAD is to mix evocative case studies with potted histories of the great and good of psychology and psychiatry. At last! A serious, well-researched book on this important subject ( Pamela Stephenson) One of the great strengths of this book is the way in which it charts the uncanny relationship between fashions in psychiatric theory and sufferers' symptoms ( SUNDAY TIMES) In a league far above any other book of its kind on this topic ( SUNDAY BUSINESS POST) A tantalising mix of polemic and history, of ideology and fact.

Mad, Bad, and Sad by Lisa Appignanesi