Through fascinating case histories and revelatory encounters with patients, Dr. Peter Kramer captures the essence of contemporary psychiatric practice, allowing the reader to look over the shoulder of a doctor in order to discover the ways in which those who deal daily with the probelms of the mind think of the mind now. He also conveys what it feels like to be inside a changing profession and defines the roles of each of the tools–from medicine to empathy–used to help patients change. With drama, wit, and a breadth of learning that extends from Freud to neurobiology to the novels of Mark Twain and Virginia Woolf, Kramer allows us to see how psychiatry, that mystifying amalgam of science, art, and simple empathy, works.