From the depression suffered by Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath to the mental anguish and addictions of the beautiful Zelda Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe. From Théroigne de Méricourt, who descended from the bloody triumphs of the French Revolution to an intractable insanity in the Salpêtrière asylum, to Mary Lamb, Charles's sister, who, in the torturous agony of a nervous breakdown, turned on her mother with a kitchen knife. Award-winning author of the novel *The Man of Memory* and co-author of the essay *Freud's Women*, Lisa Appignanesi returns to the themes of women and madness, which have always sparked her interest, in a fascinating study that helps unravel the enigmatic and often disturbing role of women in the understanding and treatment of mental disorders. *Sad, Mad, and Evil* is a book with a broad scope and an ambitious goal: to examine the history of the study of the female mind over the last two centuries. From Freud to Jung and the great advances in psychoanalysis to Lacan's construction of a modern movement and therapies centered on the new woman. After all, should a woman's mind be considered different from a man's? The premise is clear from the outset: Lisa Appignanesi doesn't see women as inherently sad, crazy, or evil, but rather questions why many mental disorders—hysteria, anorexia, multiple personality, even depression—are diagnosed more frequently in women than in men. Investigating the reasons, the author brings to life a series of exceptional women, symbols of their time, and their doctors and therapists, and explores how they did not always benefit from available treatments. Drawing on letters, diaries, and articles by feminist writers like Betty Friedan, psychologists like Melanie Klein, and psychiatrists like R.D. Laing, Appignanesi chronicles the evolution of the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in women. From the early 19th century, when mental disorders were often associated with possessions, to the present day, when official psychiatric manuals list some 350 mental disorders, the author takes us on a fascinating journey through the extraordinary and fragile human mind. "This readable and well-researched book avoids easy answers." – Times Literary Supplement "Fascinating and disturbing." – The New York Times "A rigorous and intelligent study" Observer
