Required reading for psychiatrists ...

In Crazy, Earley provides a remarkable and fresh look at the US mental health system. He does so in a balanced, honest, self-reflective, and informed way. Crazy offers a unique and sensitive perspective on questions America is reluctant to address. It should be required reading for psychiatry residents, forensic fellows, and any psychiatrist interested in public sector psychiatry ...

Placing his argument in historical context, he describes deinstitutionalization as a well-intentioned but poorly reasoned outgrowth of the antipsychiatry movement, which began in the 1960s ... Earley describes deinstitutionalization as an "unplanned social disaster," which ... has created an environment as abusive to the mentally ill as the dreaded state hospitals of the past ... Earley poignantly reflects on a society that accepts homelessness as a civil right ...

- Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), January 2, 2007