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Every book Andrew Scull recommended on podcasts
During an appearance on the Lex Fridman Podcast, Andrew Scull explored the historical intersections of psychiatry, insane asylums, mental illness, and literature. Throughout the episode, Scull discussed several notable books that captured public and professional anxieties across different eras. He referenced Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and its film adaptation to examine how popular culture and institutional environments depicted psychiatric treatments like electroconvulsive therapy, as well as the ways staff historically put patients down. Scull also mentioned Patrick McGrath's novel Asylum, connecting the author's background growing up on the grounds of Broadmoor, England's premier hospital for the criminally insane, to literature influenced by mental hospital environments. Shifting to nineteenth-century perspectives on stress and nervousness, Scull discussed two popular bestsellers by Silas Weir Mitchell: Wear and Tear or, Hints for the Overworked, which addressed the overwhelming pace of modern life involving the telegraph and railway, and Fat and Blood, which advocated for rest cures to build back scrawny and nervous patients' strength. Finally, Scull examined the foundations of psychoanalysis by discussing Studies in Hysteria, a foundational book co-authored by Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer featuring case vignettes of patients Freud treated.
Books recommended by Andrew Scull
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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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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is a powerful post-WWII novel set in a psychiatric ward, exploring institutional oppression, individuality, and conformity through the perspective of Chief Bromden and the rebellious inmate Randle McMurphy.
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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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 seminal psychological text published at the dawn of the twentieth century that establishes psychoanalysis and posits dreams as the royal road to the unconscious.
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
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| #502 – Psychiatry, Insane Asylums, Mental Illness, ECT, Lobotomies, Freud & Jung | Lex Fridman Podcast | 2026-09-17 | 9 |