Description:
The story of Dr. Jack Ferguson and his miracle therapy-using modern drugs and what he called "tender loving care"-for treating the mentally ill.
Brief description: De Kruif began his vocation at the University of Michigan, obtaining a PhD. in microbiology. After graduation, he joined the military service, first as a private on the Pancho Villa Expedition in Mexico, and then as an officer in the Sanitary Corps during World War I, where he had occasion to meet many leading French scientists of the day.In 1925, de Kruif assisted Sinclair Lewis in the research for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the state of medicine in the U.S. during the 1920s, Arrowsmith, for which he received 25 percent of royalties. The very next year de Kruif published his own book, Microbe Hunters, which became a bestseller and still remains on recommended reading lists for phycicians and scientists.De Kruif supported the belief that healthcare should be made available to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for treatments and services -something Detroit Free Press science writer Boyce Rensberger pointed out was "tantamount to treason among members of the medical community" in the 1950s, particularly the American Medical Association, which considered de Kruif a communist. In the words of Rensberger, de Kruif "fought an economic system that at the time withheld modern medicine's benefit for all but the wealthy."
Review Quotes:
A MAN AGAINST INSANITY is a must-read for all students in the helping professions. Author DeKruif provides a fasci- nating overview of the scientific method and the state of psy- chiatric care from the early to mid-20th century, beginning with William Lorenz's 1916 proclamation that "insanity is chemical." Throughout the book, DeKruif charts the slow but steady course of scientific discovery, from the brief glimmers of normality triggered by sodium cyanide to the profoundly calming effects of the powdered root from India, Rauwolfia serpentina, the forerunner of the tranquillizer, Chlorpromazine.
A Man Against Insanity is an intriguing story about scien- tific discovery and the Northern Michigan physician who prevailed over personal adversity to lead in the development of modern psychopharmacology.
-Michael J. Sullivan LMSW Family Psychotherapist