The Sleep Room

'A gripping medical biography that encompasses sex, drugs, brainwashing, intelligence operations, murder and several scandals' – Frank Tallis, author of Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna and the Discovery of the Modern Mind

'A devastating account of the effects one unchecked psychiatrist had on vulnerable mental patients.' – Lisa Appignanesi, author of Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors

'A chilling case study in dangerous psychiatry, Stock's gripping expose of the invasive and reckless interventions inflicted on women in the Sleep Room will keep you wide awake.' – Cordelia Fine, author of Patriarchy Inc. and Testosterone Rex

The Royal Waterloo Hospital, London in the 1960s. Six young women lie asleep on low beds. Day and night no longer exist, extinguished by a potent cocktail of antipsychotic, sedative and anti-depressant drugs. The women are taken from their beds by the nurses and given electroconvulsive therapy before being put to sleep again. All under the predatory eye of Dr William Sargant.

The Sleep Room is a chilling expose of Sargant's bizarre psychiatric treatments that were inflicted on hundreds of women with mental illness – among them the actor Celia Imrie. At the story's centre is a sinister and charismatic doctor, who was a hugely influential figure in post-war British society – lauded by Robert Graves and Aldous Huxley as well as regularly appearing on the BBC. When Sargant died in 1988, the obituaries were glowing.

But since then, women treated without their consent and with often horrific side-effects lasting decades have been campaigning to tell the truth about Sargant. Author Jon Stock tells these women's stories, delving into the murky history of Sargant's links with the CIA and MI5, both of which took a close interest in his efforts to reprogramme the human mind.

As compulsive as a thriller, The Sleep Room finally gets to the truth of a scandal at the heart of the British medical establishment.