In this work Richard P. Bentall shatters the modern myths that surround madness, showing that there is no clear, reassuring dividing line between mental health and mental illness. He demonstrates that labels such as 'schizophrenia' and 'manic depression' are meaningless, based on nineteenth-century classifications which modern research has shown to have no scientific value. Moreover, psychotic symptoms cannot be reduced to brain dysfunction, but instead can be understood only in terms of psychological mechanisms that are part of normal human nature. Experiences such as delusional beliefs and hearing voices are in fact exaggerations of mental foibles to which we are all vulnerable, and in some cultures are not seen as abnormal at all.

Tags: madness explained