American Therapy : The Rise of Psychotherapy in the United States

When did alcoholism first become defined as a problem susceptible to therapeutic intervention? How did postwar suburban affluence affect America's perception of mental health and mental health care? When did therapy become a reasonable recourse for the middle class or the worried well or the unhappily married? And how, at each juncture, have psychiatry and psychoanalysis responded to growth and innovation among alternate healers? American Therapy answers these questions and more, with a sweeping look at the history of mental health care, examining the social context in which therapy has grown and developed in America.

Jonathan Engel holds a Ph.D. in the history of science and medicine from Yale, and has written extensively about the historical development of U.S. medicine. He is the author of three previous books and is a professor at Baruch College, CUNY.