For centuries, doctors have struggled to define mental illness – how do you diagnose it, how do you treat it, how do you even know what it is? In search of an answer, in the 1970s a Stanford psychologist named David Rosenhan and seven other people – sane, normal, well-adjusted members of society – went undercover into asylums around America to test the legitimacy of psychiatry's labels. Forced to remain inside until they'd 'proven' themselves sane, all eight emerged with alarming diagnoses...

A Guardian Pick for 'Best M****emoirs and Biographies of 2025'A New York Times Book Review Podcast’s 'Books We're Excited About in Early 2025'Rosemary Woodruff Leary has been known only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest, whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and whose life on the run with Rosemary inflamed the U.S. government. But Rosemary was more than a mere accesso...

**An investigation of the shocking mystery behind the dramatic experiment that revolutionized modern medicine, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire."Bold, brave, and original." —Susan Orlean, bestselling author of The Orchid Thief**Doctors have struggled for centuries to define insanity—how do you diagnose it, how do you treat it, how do you even know what it is? In search of an answer, in the 1970s a Stanford psychologis...

**An investigation of the shocking mystery behind the dramatic experiment that revolutionized modern medicine, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire."Bold, brave, and original." —Susan Orlean, bestselling author of The Orchid Thief**Doctors have struggled for centuries to define insanity—how do you diagnose it, how do you treat it, how do you even know what it is? In search of an answer, in the 1970s a Stanford psychologis...