Cracked: The Unhappy Truth about Psychiatry

A “thought-provoking” look at the psychiatric profession, the overprescribing of pharmaceuticals, and the cost to patients’ health (Booklist).


In an effort to enlighten a new generation about its growing reliance on psychiatry, Cracked investigates why psychiatry has become the fastest-growing medical field in history; why psychiatric drugs are now more widely prescribed than ever before; and why psychiatry keeps expanding the number of mental disorders it believes to exist. This revelatory volume shows that these issues can be explained by one startling fact: in recent decades psychiatry has become motivated by the pursuit of pharmaceutical riches. Readers will be shocked and dismayed to discover that psychiatry, in the name of helping others, has actually been helping itself. Investigative in tone and shocking in it findings, James Davies’ Cracked reveals psychiatry’s hidden failings—and explores how this field of study must change if it is ever to win back the patient’s trust.