From the bestselling author of Brain on Fire comes one of the most anticipated books of 2019—The Great Pretender.

Come hear Susannah Cahalan, the woman NPR calls “one of America’s most courageous young journalists," re-open one of the most iconic modern studies in psychology.

In 1973, a charismatic doctor named David Rosenhan convinced eight healthy people to commit themselves to mental hospitals in order to test the legitimacy of psychiatric labels and the quality of psychiatric care. The study's results transformed our nation's mental health system, shuttering countless mental institutions ... but a closer look into Rosenhan's methods suggests potential fraud.

What does this mean for the field?

"The Great Pretender is a tight, propulsive, true-life detective story which somehow also doubles as a sweeping history of our broken mental health-care system. Cahalan herself has experienced this system as both a patient and a reporter, and her background informs every fascinating page of this dogged investigative odyssey."― Luke Dittrich, New York Times bestselling author of Patient H.M.

Cahalan will be joined by Dr. Shaili Jain, a psychiatrist, researcher, author and PTSD specialist who currently serves as the Medical Director for Integrated Care at the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System.

Photo of Susannah Cahalan by Shannon Taggart.