Throughout the 19th century, syphilis swept through European society like a plague, and it was especially associated with artists and musicians. Known as "the Great Imitator," it could produce almost any form of mental or physical illness, and it filled asylums to overflowing. Hysteria, on the other hand, remains unexplained and epidemic, Allan Ropper and Brian David Burrell note here, and it has led to the abuse of lobotomy, electroshock therapy, and psychotropic drugs. Mental disorders may originate in either the mind or the brain, and as this book suggests, figuring out which is which may be the most contentious subject in the mental health field.