In The Invisible Plague, E. Fuller Torrey and Judy Miller examine the records on insanity in England, Ireland, Canada, and the United States over a 250-year period, concluding, through both qualitative and quantitative evidence, that insanity is an unrecognized, modern-day plague. Their conclusion is based on demographic data, the writings of psychiatrists, and numerous literary sources. This book is a unique and major contribution to medical history. Until now, insanity, and its apparent rise over the centuries, has been interpreted as a socially and economically driven phenomenon. The present authors insist upon the biological reality of insanity and examine the reasons why epidemic insanity has been so profoundly misunderstood. The book concludes with descriptions of the possible biological causes of insanity.

By failing to understand insanity as an epidemic, we fail to appreciate its role in, for example, the Salem witch trials, the eugenics movement, and the mental hygiene movement, and its important effects on modern literature. We also fail to fully understand and address contemporary tragedies of the epidemic, such as the number of individuals with schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness who are homeless or in jails.

E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., is a research psychiatrist, executive director of the Stanley Foundation, and professor of psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He has published sixteen books including Surviving Schizophrenia and The Roots of Treason, nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as one of 1983s best five biographies. Judy Miller is a senior research assistant working with Torrey.

Click here to read an interview with the authors of The Invisible Plague.

Praise for The Invisible Plague

"Torrey is a distinguished US researcher in psychiatry, a prolific writer for both scientists and the public, and director of the Stanley Foundation. His extensive work on schizophrenia . . . has led him to be increasingly critical of conventional views that the frequency of [mental] illness does not vary much worldwide and has not varied over time. . . . This view of schizophrenia as a new and epidemic disease has not gone unchallenged. Historians following the philosopher Michel Foucault see the rise of asylums as the removal of troublesome people form general society, although examination of how the early institutions were set up shows that humanitarian concern was the strongest motive. . . . If there was an epidemic, though, it must have had a cause. The authors argue that novel approaches are needed to investigate what this was. . . . This highly informative and stimulating work has certainly raised some neglected questions that demand more serious scientific attention. For one thing, the burgeoning cities of developing countries might be a fertile soil for schizophrenia, although there is no evidence yet that this is happening."Nature

"In their refreshing, thoroughly documented, cogent reply to the current generally accepted interpretation of the incidence and even the existence of insanity, Torrey and Miller point out many holes in the arguments of other recent historians of the subject and dont push any single approach to schizophrenia and manic depression. Instead, they ask for a spirit of inquiry because so much about the rate of growth and the causes of mental illness remains unclear. . . . There is enough history of diagnosis and treatment in the U.S., England, Ireland, and Canada to fascinate readers whose favorite topics isnt numbers. . . . Frequent reference to literary works and authors lightens the tone of the proceedings, as does the authors hypothesis of a relationship between the wearing of stockings and the incidence of insanity."Booklist

"Important and provocative. By insisting on the biological reality of insanity, the authors pose a major challenge to the current tendency to view concepts of mental illness and mental institutions as a means of incarcerating unproductive individuals and enforcing capitalist hegemony."Gerald N. Grob, author of The Mad among Us: A History of the Care of Americas Mentally Ill

"Some epidemics are not obvious at all. Imagine, for example, an epidemic that begins not over a few weeks or a few years but over a few decades. Imagine an epidemic that does not cause cupfuls of sputum, skin cancers, or a 60-lb. weight loss but rather affects the brain, causing people to have strange beliefs, extreme mood swings, and illogical thinking, to hear voices that others cannot hear, and to exhibit bizarre behavior in response to their strange beliefs and illogical thinking. Imagine an epidemic that does not quickly kill a large percentage of those affected, but instead slowly kills 15 percent by suicide. . . . Imagine an epidemic that affects over 4 million Americans, most of them in the prime of their lives, and will continue to affect more than one in every one hundred people born. . . . This is the epidemic of insanity."