The Sleep Room: A Sadistic Psychiatrist and the Women Who Survived Him

Journalist and spy novelist Stock follows up No Place to Hide with a harrowing deep dive into the lurid life and crimes of British psychiatrist William Sargant (1907–1988). After WWII, Sargant rose to prominence as a so-called expert on mental illness, advocating for lobotomies, electroshock therapies, and narcosis as standard treatments for even mild ailments. Drawing on medical records and first-person accounts from Sargant’s mostly female patients, Stock paints a chilling portrait of Ward 5 at London’s Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women, where Sargant, who authored several popular books on mental illness, treated even minor cases of depression with drug-induced comas between 1948 and his retirement in 1972. As Stock catalogs Sargant’s malpractices, he also pieces together a biography of the man himself, who suffered from nervous breakdowns and addictions to pornography and drugs. Most intriguingly, Stock covers Sargant’s work developing truth serums and brainwashing compounds for the British armed forces during WWII, positing that some of his patients may have been guinea pigs for military intelligence. With the thoroughness of top-notch journalism and the controlled tone of the best espionage fiction, Stock serves up one chilling anecdote after another. The result is an unforgettable glimpse into the heart of darkness. Agent: Kirby Kim, Janklow & Nesbit. (July)