In his most recent book, Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness, Dr. Andrew Scull takes a deep dive into the history of American psychiatry spanning the past two hundred years. From the birth of the asylum to the current day drug companies’ role in over-prescribing patients, he traces medical practitioners’ search to cure mental illness and its effects on their patients. Join us for the 2022 Warren A. Sawyer Lecture for a more detailed look into Dr. Scull’s research.

To purchase his book, click here.

Dr. Andrew Scull is the author of Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness, Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity, from the Bible to Freud, from the Madhouse to Modern Medicine; Hysteria: The Disturbing History; Madness: A Very Short Introduction; and Psychiatry and Its Discontents; among other books. Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, at the University of California, San Diego, he won the Roy Porter Medal for lifetime contribution to the history of medicine and the Eric Carlson Award for lifetime contributions to the history of psychiatry. He has contributed to many documentaries, including PBS’s “Mysteries of Mental Illness” and “The Lobotomist,” has written for The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, the Times Literary Supplement, Scientific American, and The Nation, and blogs for Psychology Today and Mad in America.

The lecture will take place Wednesday, October 19, 2022, at 6 PM EST on Zoom. This event is open to the public. Seating is limited and registration is required by Tuesday, October 18, 2022, at 6 PM to reserve your seat and receive login information. 

The Waring Library Society sponsors this annual lecture as part of the Waring Library Society Lecture series. The Warren A. Sawyer Lecture is named in memory of Warren Sawyer who served as Director of Libraries at the Medical University of South Carolina from 1968 until his death in November 1989. Mr. Sawyer was born in Bay Shore, New York, and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and earned his MS in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He contributed to local and national functions in roles as diverse as Secretary to the University Faculty and member of the Biomedical Library Review Committee of the National Library of Medicine. Mr. Sawyer was a long-time member of the Waring Library Society of which he served as president.

To learn more information about our programs or the Waring Library Society, please visit waring.library.musc.edu, email waringhl@musc.edu, or call (843)792-2288.