The Great Pretender is a clear-eyed examination of a turning point in the history of mental health care, in the style of Susan Orlean or Jon Ronson. Cahalan has done the legwork, chasing shadows and ghosts through the annals of the asylums, trying to establish the veracity of David Rosenhan’s pivotal "pseudopatient" study in 1973. This is a must-read for anyone affected by mental illness (which, as we know, is pretty much everyone… isn’t it?).

An extended review of The Great Pretender is available to subscribers at Keeping Up With The Penguins.