For some weird reason I find the history behind Mental Health back then very interesting (also the stories of the people who were patients as well as nurses/doctors). Lately i have read: My Lobotomy (a sad story), The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic, And Asylum : Inside The Closed World of State Mental Hospitals.

I am about to read Bedlam: A Year in the life of a mental hospital.