“Ophir’s survey of schizophrenia is magisterial. Diagnostic categorization has served general medicine and physical health very well. But this book conveys that we may have to consider such a process as abnormal, even inhuman, when it comes to personal experiences.”Robert Hinshelwood, psychoanalyst and author“We have long awaited a history of schizophrenia that brings to bear a deep understanding of that word’s past and present. This excellent look backwards will become a new starting point for us to better consider our future.”George Makari, MD, author of Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia“A superb account of the vicissitudes of the schizophrenia concept.”Ruth Leys, Johns Hopkins University“captivating […] thoughtful and compassionate”History Today“Ophir covers this ground skillfully, piquing the interests of readers coming from many different backgrounds and disciplines.”Meghan Wildhood, Mad in America"In this ambitious history - which ranges from the Hebrew Bible to the DSM to the Hearing Voices Movement - psychoanalyst and historian Orna Ophir shows how understandings of ‘schizophrenia’ have oscillated over time. Sometimes placed on a continuum with the normal, at other times thought of as a distinct category of illness, Ophir suggests that the ever-contested diagnosis of schizophrenia might one day soon be replaced."Rachel Cooper, Lancaster University
