In Imagining Robert, Jay Neugeboren told the sad, deeply personal, often harrowing story of one man and one family's struggle with chronic mental illness. Now, he presents an overview of the entire field: a clear-eyed, articulate, comprehensive survey of our mental health care system's shortcomings and of new, effective, proven approaches that make real differences in the lives of millions of Americans afflicted with severe mental illness. A book for general readers and professionals alike, Transforming Madness is at once a critique, a message of hope and recovery, and a call to action. Filled with dramatic stories, it shows us the many ways in which people who have suffered the long-term ravages of psychiatric disorders have reclaimed full and viable lives.

Jay Neugeboren has published seven novels, two short story collections, and two memoirs, including 1997's acclaimed Imagining Robert, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His stories and essays have appeared in more than a hundred magazines and have been reprinted in more than fifty anthologies. He has won numerous awards for his work, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is a professor and writer-in-residence at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

"This should be on the short list of books about mental health that can be called great."—Library Journal

"A treasure trove of the most recent, most relevant research in the field. . . .[Transforming Madness] could be used as a handbook or field guide to providing psyschiatric rehabilitation services. . . . Rarely do we find a single book that feeds our intellect, touches our emotions and inspires our spirit."—Tim Mize, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal

"It is the great merit of Neugeboren's books that they prompt the reader to ponder the matter [of mental illness] at length and with plenty of material to chew over."—Tim Parks, New York Review of Books

"Hope, Neugeboren notes, 'can prove to be a genuine and quite solid element—a palpable force in a person's life and being.' The hope is not for a 'cure,' necessarily, but for programs and modes of thought that help people work, love and play—even if symptoms of mania or hallucinations or depression persist."—Joshua Wolf Shine, Washington Post Book World

"Transforming Madness is the most uplifting, engaging, and informative story about the good news related to helping people with severe mental illness that I have ever read."—Dr. William A. Anthony, Director, Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation

Winner of the Ken Book Award, given by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill