Rebecca Reich is a lecturer in Russian literature and culture at the University of Cambridge.

"This is a sophisticated analysis. Reich demonstrates the truly insidious nature of state-sponsored psychiatric discourse and practice after Stalin. Rather than a simple indictment, however, she accesses important primary and secondary sources to explore the complexity of defining 'madness' in this conformist society." --Angela Brintlinger, editor of Madness and the Mad in Russian Culture "State of Madness is the first study to explore, for purposes other than moral condemnation, the use of punitive psychiatry against 'other-thinkers' and dissidents under late Soviet socialism. Without condoning the practice, Reich investigates the meanings attached to sanity and insanity, their deployment for political and literary purposes, and the way the idea of madness informs and inflects key literary devices. The result is a work of unquestionable significance." --Benjamin Nathans, University of Pennsylvania

Rebecca Reich is a lecturer in Russian literature and culture at the University of Cambridge.

"This is a sophisticated analysis. Reich demonstrates the truly insidious nature of state-sponsored psychiatric discourse and practice after Stalin. Rather than a simple indictment, however, she accesses important primary and secondary sources to explore the complexity of defining 'madness' in this conformist society." --Angela Brintlinger, editor of Madness and the Mad in Russian Culture "State of Madness is the first study to explore, for purposes other than moral condemnation, the use of punitive psychiatry against 'other-thinkers' and dissidents under late Soviet socialism. Without condoning the practice, Reich investigates the meanings attached to sanity and insanity, their deployment for political and literary purposes, and the way the idea of madness informs and inflects key literary devices. The result is a work of unquestionable significance." --Benjamin Nathans, University of Pennsylvania

Rebecca Reich is a lecturer in Russian literature and culture at the University of Cambridge.

"This is a sophisticated analysis. Reich demonstrates the truly insidious nature of state-sponsored psychiatric discourse and practice after Stalin. Rather than a simple indictment, however, she accesses important primary and secondary sources to explore the complexity of defining 'madness' in this conformist society." --Angela Brintlinger, editor of Madness and the Mad in Russian Culture "State of Madness is the first study to explore, for purposes other than moral condemnation, the use of punitive psychiatry against 'other-thinkers' and dissidents under late Soviet socialism. Without condoning the practice, Reich investigates the meanings attached to sanity and insanity, their deployment for political and literary purposes, and the way the idea of madness informs and inflects key literary devices. The result is a work of unquestionable significance." --Benjamin Nathans, University of Pennsylvania