Person
Every book Andrew Scull recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Andrew Scull has recommended or discussed 7 books on podcasts, as of September 17, 2026.
- Andrew Scull has talked about books on 1 podcast, as of September 17, 2026.
- Those books came up in 1 episode, as of September 17, 2026.
- The 3 books Andrew Scull has mentioned in the most episodes, as of September 17, 2026: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Asylum and Fat and Blood.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Andrew Scull aired on September 17, 2026.
Updated
Andrew Scull’s most recommended books
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
- Asylum by Patrick Mcgrath
- Fat and Blood by Silas Weir Mitchell
- On Being Sane in Insane Places by David L. Rosenhan
- Studies in Hysteria by Sigmund Freud
- The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
- Wear and Tear or, Hints for the Overworked by Silas Weir Mitchell
Andrew Scull appears on deep-dive discussion programs like the Lex Fridman Podcast, where he shares his extensive expertise in the history of psychiatry, insane asylums, mental illness treatments, and psychoanalysis. Throughout his conversation with Lex Fridman, Scull references numerous historical milestones, scientific studies, and notable works of fiction and non-fiction that shaped public perception and medical practice regarding mental health. He discussed David Rosenhan's famous scientific study On Being Sane in Insane Places, detailing its role in debates over psychiatric diagnosis, and examined Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest alongside its film adaptation for how they depicted electroconvulsive therapy and the grim environments of mental institutions. Scull also mentioned Patrick McGrath's novel Asylum, noting how the author's upbringing on the grounds of Broadmoor influenced his literary depiction of psychiatric hospitals. In exploring nineteenth-century medical history, Scull discussed popular self-help bestsellers of the era, such as Silas Weir Mitchell's Wear and Tear and Fat and Blood, which addressed the perceived stresses of modern life through rest cures. Finally, he analyzed foundational psychoanalytic literature, including Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer's Studies in Hysteria and Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, providing listeners with a comprehensive historical overview of how society has understood and treated psychological distress.
Books recommended by Andrew Scull
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey's classic novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" portrays institutional life and psychiatric practices through the experiences of patients in a mental asylum.
Discussed“And of course in the popular mind I think the, probably the most famous, instance of telling the public about some of these interventions was the film of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest where you see Jack Nicholson giving I think the performance of a lifetime who is given ECT, electroconvulsive therapy,”
Where to get it
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Asylum
Discussed“And my friend Patrick McGrath, who's a novelist, wrote a book called Asylum. Patrick grew up in the grounds of Broadmoor. Broadmoor is England's premier hospital for the criminally insane, and he was babysat by some of the patients.”
Where to get it
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Fat and Blood
Discussed“The solution was Fat and Blood. That was the title of the other book. You got scrawny, nouveau, nervous, twitchy. And what you really needed was to build back up your strength. including your nervous strength.”
Where to get it
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On Being Sane in Insane Places
Discussed“then via a very famous study that's a scientific fraud by David Rosenhan called On Being Sane in Insane Places where he claimed to have sent in pseudo patients to the hospital”
Where to get it
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Studies in Hysteria
Discussed“And Breuer collaborate on a book called Studies in Hysteria, and they're a series of case vignettes in there of patients Freud has treated.”
Where to get it
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The Interpretation of Dreams
The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud is a foundational psychoanalytic text that introduces the concept of dream analysis as a window into the unconscious mind and repressed desires.
Discussed“He writes The Interpretation of Dreams, for example, because he begins to regard dreams as an arena where these hidden memories, these suppressed- ... things reemerge in disguised form in your dream life.”
Where to get it
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Wear and Tear or, Hints for the Overworked
Discussed“Weir Mitchell wrote two popular bestsellers, self-help books, suppose you'd call them in the modern genre. One was called Wear and Tear. The pace of modern life, the telegraph, the railway was all too much.”
Where to get it
Books Andrew Scull wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| #502 – Psychiatry, Insane Asylums, Mental Illness, ECT, Lobotomies, Freud & Jung | Lex Fridman Podcast | 2026-09-17 | 8 |
Other mentions (3: passing, ad reads, own books)
“My book Madhouse at one point interested Hollywood, and one of the two principals said to me, "I really like this story. It's got a great first act and a great second act, but where's the third act?"”
“So when I first conceived the idea of writing Desperate Remedies, the book, it was back in 1981 and I was in London on a Guggenheim Fellowship at the Wellcome Institute.”
“and I wrote a big book called Madness in Civilization about from the ancient Greeks and ancient China to now -- in every society I've studied they have to cope with this.”