by Alison Bateman-House* Charles Barber's latest book, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry is Medicating a Nation (Pantheon Books), is a passionate, multi-pronged critique of the state of psychiatry in the United States. Barber takes as his starting point his fourteen years working with the mentally ill homeless in New York City. In positions ranging from a counselor to a senior social services administrator, he worked on the streets, in shelters, and in supportive residential programs with clients who were dealing with... [Full Story]