Breakdown

This acclaimed account by Stuart Sutherland, the best-selling author of Irrationality, of his own manic depression remains unique in its honesty and perception. As an eminent psychologist who suffered a severe mental breakdown, Sutherland provides us with an original and insightful description of his illness, its often bizarre consequences, and an analysis of the origins of mental illness.

Essential reading for students and anyone affected by or interested in mental illness, Sutherland describes and critically assesses the various forms of therapy and drug treatments available to sufferers of manic depression.

'Incisive, unsentimental, whole unsparing, but full of humour and humanity (and often very funny), Breakdown remains one of the best accounts I know of a personal journey through manic depression. I think it will take its place among the modern classics of this literature.' Oliver Sacks

'This is a book unlike any other that I have read. It combines a searingly honest and terrifyingly detailed account of a mental breakdown with a professional's description of the reality of mental illness as it is treated in our society. It is unforgettable. That is what a breakdown is really like.' Kingsley Amis

With a new foreword by Professor Max Birchwood.