NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Daniel Bergner’s exploration of the scientific landscape of mental illness and its treatment is wide-ranging and, ultimately, fairly depressing. Bergner’s voice is pleasant and genuine, but his carefully enunciated performance is a bit too measured and restrained when added notes of anger and fear would be completely appropriate. Bergner lays out the limited success of psychotropic drugs—often no better than placebos and accompanied by irreversible side effects such as obesity, hair loss, and debilitating tremors. Mushrooms, LSD, and talk therapy are no better. Amid the academic research, Bergner embeds the extensive stories of three individuals living with mental illness, including his brother Bob, adding heart to this important work. Although this is still a fine audiobook, a performer equal to the value of the text would have added value. A.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
03/14/2022
With an unsparing eye and novelist’s flair for storytelling, New York Times Magazine contributor Bergner (Sing for Your Life) explores “the chasm between physiology and consciousness... between what we’re made of and who we are” in the treatment of mental illness. His brother, Bob, was diagnosed as bipolar as a young adult, institutionalized, and given “major doses” of antipsychotics “that left his hands tremoring.” This story becomes the driver, and source of radical empathy, behind Bergner’s exploration of the limits of Western medicine. Using the stories of Caroline, a roller derby star who hears voices, and David, a civil rights attorney whose withdrawal from antidepressants is exponentially worse than his initial depression, as moving examples to ground his case, a thesis emerges: drugs have been ham-fistedly prescribed to treat mental illnesses, despite minimal efficacy and little regard for serious side effects. As Bergner picks the brains of neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and others guided by “the ultimate hope not only of treating our conditions but of understanding our minds,” he sheds light on the long-running tension between biology-driven psychiatry and psychoanalysis, and lucidly examines alternative treatment options, such as therapeutic farms and peer support networks. It all amounts to a compassionate, genre-spanning narrative that calls for less fixing, and more appreciation of and accommodations for many kinds of minds. This will leave readers with much to ponder. (May)
From the Publisher
A profound and powerful work of essential reporting…Caroline, one of the individuals Bergner follows, first heard voices when she was in daycare…It is with great skill that Bergner places Caroline's story in context of the history of modern psychiatry. It's hard to do justice to the sweep of the larger story he tells…[Bergner] poses questions about the ethical challenges, complex social issues and other problems of modern biological psychiatry, and he makes a strong case that radical examination and change are urgently required.” — New York Times Book Review
“[Bergner's] heartfelt book threads the stories of three fascinating patients and raises urgent questions about how we view and treat mental illness.” — People magazine
“Exceptionally well written, impressively informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking.” — Midwest Book Review
“[Written] with an unsparing eye and novelist’s flair for storytelling…[Bergner] sheds light on the long-running tension between biology-driven psychiatry and psychoanalysis, and lucidly examines alternative treatment options…It all amounts to a compassionate, genre-spanning narrative that calls for less fixing, and more appreciation of and accommodations for many kinds of minds. This will leave readers with much to ponder." — Publishers Weekly
“A personal and studied reckoning with 'the cost of our belief in biological psychiatry’…An inescapably relevant and resonant journey into the impacts of our limited understanding of the mind." — Kirkus Reviews
“Timely…Bergner, the author of five deeply reported nonfiction books and numerous magazine essays, recounts the history of psychiatry, from Bedlam to Zoloft, via profiles of three individuals: Caroline, David, and Bob (the author's brother)…Heartbreaking.” — City Journal
“Bergner pushes readers to question our society’s demand to pathologize mental illness as the sole path towards destigmatizing it. Rather, he effectively argues for the need to view mental health through varied lenses, involving sociopolitical factors and centering the perspectives of those most impacted by these issues.” — Booklist
“Personal and heartfelt…Bergner’s narrative approach lets him tell individual tales in great detail, and because he is an experienced journalist, he brings them vividly to life…their struggles, their pain, and their triumphs…Above all else, Bergner is urging us to respect each other’s uniqueness.” — Washington Independent Review of Books
“A deeply reported critique of the medication revolution in psychiatry…[a] moving narrative…[a] deep dive into the history of psychiatric treatments…as Bergner shows in his well-crafted narrative, the longstanding belief that there is a pill (or a drug cocktail) for every psychiatric ill is little more than a widely shared delusion, which can sometimes make life even harder for those who turn to psychiatry for relief from their mental anguish.” — Undark
“The Mind and the Moon offers readers a critical, wide-ranging tour through the maze of modern biological psychiatry, interrogating some of its most widely accepted premises. Daniel Bergner’s accounts of the struggles of three very different people, including his own brother, are overflowing with sensitivity, wisdom, heart, and soul. This is a work of hard-won perspective and intense empathy — intimate and heartbreaking, deeply personal and lyrically powerful.” — Robert Kolker, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hidden Valley Road
“In book after book, Daniel Bergner has dramatized hard subjects—an American prison, a West African war, sexuality, race—with all the compassion and courage of a great writer. But he's outdone himself in The Mind and the Moon, where he explores the most perilous region of all and finds extraordinary suffering, beauty, and common humanity. This is a troubling, exhilarating work of science and high art.” — George Packer, author of Last Best Hope, Our Man, and The Unwinding
“Daniel Bergner’s The Mind and the Moon asks us to look beyond psychiatric labels to see the human experience obscured by the diagnosis. Combining rigorous research and intimate storytelling, Bergner challenges the dominant belief that mental illness is the result of a ‘broken brain’ that can and must be fixed with medication. This book is both a sorely needed critique of the American mental health care system and a love song for the mad and neurodivergent.” — Grace M. Cho, author of National Book Award finalist Tastes Like War
“The Mind and the Moon is a brilliant, fascinating exploration of the relation between brain and mind, and a provocative rethinking of where psychiatry may have gone badly awry. Bergner’s account of his subjects’ struggles with depression and psychosis is vivid and humane. He raises important philosophical questions about the blurry line between mental health and mental illness, and about our limited understanding of what it means to be human.” — Scott Stossel, national editor of the Atlantic, and author of My Age of Anxiety
Scott Stossel
The Mind and the Moon is a brilliant, fascinating exploration of the relation between brain and mind, and a provocative rethinking of where psychiatry may have gone badly awry. Bergner’s account of his subjects’ struggles with depression and psychosis is vivid and humane. He raises important philosophical questions about the blurry line between mental health and mental illness, and about our limited understanding of what it means to be human.”
George Packer
In book after book, Daniel Bergner has dramatized hard subjects—an American prison, a West African war, sexuality, race—with all the compassion and courage of a great writer. But he's outdone himself in The Mind and the Moon, where he explores the most perilous region of all and finds extraordinary suffering, beauty, and common humanity. This is a troubling, exhilarating work of science and high art.”
Booklist
"Bergner pushes readers to question our society’s demand to pathologize mental illness as the sole path towards destigmatizing it. Rather, he effectively argues for the need to view mental health through varied lenses, involving sociopolitical factors and centering the perspectives of those most impacted by these issues."
Robert Kolker
The Mind and the Moon offers readers a critical, wide-ranging tour through the maze of modern biological psychiatry, interrogating some of its most widely accepted premises. Daniel Bergner’s accounts of the struggles of three very different people, including his own brother, are overflowing with sensitivity, wisdom, heart, and soul. This is a work of hard-won perspective and intense empathy — intimate and heartbreaking, deeply personal and lyrically powerful.”
Grace M. Cho
Daniel Bergner’s The Mind and the Moon asks us to look beyond psychiatric labels to see the human experience obscured by the diagnosis. Combining rigorous research and intimate storytelling, Bergner challenges the dominant belief that mental illness is the result of a ‘broken brain’ that can and must be fixed with medication. This book is both a sorely needed critique of the American mental health care system and a love song for the mad and neurodivergent.
Booklist
"Bergner pushes readers to question our society’s demand to pathologize mental illness as the sole path towards destigmatizing it. Rather, he effectively argues for the need to view mental health through varied lenses, involving sociopolitical factors and centering the perspectives of those most impacted by these issues."
NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Daniel Bergner’s exploration of the scientific landscape of mental illness and its treatment is wide-ranging and, ultimately, fairly depressing. Bergner’s voice is pleasant and genuine, but his carefully enunciated performance is a bit too measured and restrained when added notes of anger and fear would be completely appropriate. Bergner lays out the limited success of psychotropic drugs—often no better than placebos and accompanied by irreversible side effects such as obesity, hair loss, and debilitating tremors. Mushrooms, LSD, and talk therapy are no better. Amid the academic research, Bergner embeds the extensive stories of three individuals living with mental illness, including his brother Bob, adding heart to this important work. Although this is still a fine audiobook, a performer equal to the value of the text would have added value. A.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-01-18
A personal and studied reckoning with “the cost of our belief in biological psychiatry.”
New York Times Magazine contributing writer Bergner credits his latest book to his younger brother, Bob, whose struggles with mental health led the author to this undertaking. Were it not for Bob, writes the author, “I would never have met the scientists who study our brains with the ultimate hope not only of treating our conditions but of understanding our minds, of crossing that chasm between…what we’re made of and who we are.” Bergner interweaves science—historical and current—with narratives focused on a handful of people, Bob included, all of whom were told they would need psychotropic medications for the rest of their lives; additionally, he adds his own insights and quotes a bevy of sources. Two of his subjects, Caroline and David, reveal their battles with psychosis, depression, anxiety, paranoia, and suicidal ideation as well as their experiences on and off medications, including the side effects and brutal withdrawal symptoms. The author unpacks the history of first- and second-generation psychiatric drugs and some of the financially motivated coverups of their manufacturers, and he reveals studies proving the stunning efficacy of placebos in treating depression. Bergner devotes many pages to conversations with and the work of neuroscientists Eric Nestler and Donald Goff, who are searching for new ways to treat depression and psychotic conditions. In a talk with Goff about Caroline, Bergner notes the doctor’s language: “has she been tried on was certainly a striking construction, distinguishable from has she tried. She was the object, not the subject, of the sentence, the recipient, not the one deciding.” Ultimately, Bergner concludes, “psychiatry cannot fully hear individuality so long as the profession clings to scientific authority. To listen, to truly listen, the profession would have to let go. It would have to embrace the idea of working with patients, of proceeding on footing that is more equal than not, even when with is elusive.”
An inescapably relevant and resonant journey into the impacts of our limited understanding of the mind.
