Philip Alcabes, Professor of Public Health, Adelphi University, author of Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu And it's not just our health but our instincts, desires, feelings, and even our grasp on reality that are at stake.' Turning old-fashioned germ theory inside out, she explains that we humans are the slow-moving interlopers in a world of microbes. 'With Infectious Madness, Harriet Washington sounds a much-needed alarm - although not a welcome one. Poussaint, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Washington challenges us to expand our view of the causes, prevention, and treatment of emotional disorders. ' Infectious Madness is a fascinating book about the role of infectious diseases in mental illness. Carl Hart, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Columbia University 'Your views on the causes of mental illness will be forever altered when you read this profoundly humane and transformative book.' Robert Sapolsky, author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers This is fascinating material and Harriet Washington is a great writer - clear and accessible, witty, probing, and able to dissect the controversies in this field with great objectivity.' The book has a broad, exciting range, considering 'contagion' in both the reductive sense, as well as an in the expansive societal manner. This superb book reviews the novel realization that infectious pathogens, and the immune system's response to them, can be risk factors for mental illness as well. We've escaped this primordial muck of attribution, learning that mental illnesses are biological disorders, complete with chemical and structural abnormalities in the brain, and with risk factors ranging from genes, hormones and fetal life to socioeconomic status.

'It used to be obvious what caused mental illness-depravity, a rotten soul, being in cahoots with the Devil. 'An impressive array of technical research is presented in a readable style in Infectious Madness.' 'A fascinating exploration of how common infections can affect mental illness.' Infectious Madness will inspire healthy debate and.bold new strategies for prevention and treatment.'- Priscilla Gilman, More Magazine 'Terrifying and comforting in equal measure.

Infectious madness book