The Great Pretender Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Fake Science and our BookBrowse Review of The Great Pretender.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Discuss the book's title. Does the term "the great pretender" change meaning for you over the course of the book, and if so,how? What different things does it represent to you by the end of the book versus the beginning?
2. In chapter 1, Susannah encounters a woman whose disease was similar to her own, but her fate was drastically different. She begins to refer to her as her "mirror image." How does this figure—and the author's awareness of her background presence—help shape the rest of the book? What would such a person look like in your own life?
3. Why do you think "On Being Sane in Insane Places" hit such a nerve in American culture in 1973, and caused such a sea change in the history of psychiatry? How was it different from the work done by Nellie Bly and other brave pseudopatients and reporters in previous decades?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Grand Central Publishing. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.