{"id":6,"date":"2023-01-19T15:26:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T15:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williamsargant.com\/?page_id=6"},"modified":"2025-11-03T20:10:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T20:10:55","slug":"the-sleep-room","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/williamsargant.com\/","title":{"rendered":"William Sargant"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sleep Room
\nby Jon Stock<\/p>\n

‘Shocking… a damning portrait of a man who, in the name of psychiatric progress, left a trail of broken lives in his wake’\u00a0<\/span>Telegraph<\/em><\/span>, five stars<\/span>
\n
\n‘Compelling’ \u2013 <\/span>Sunday Times<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

‘A gripping expose’ \u2013 <\/span>Financial Times<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

‘Beautifully researched, wildly unsettling’
\n\u2013 Sam Knight, author of The Premonitions Bureau<\/em><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

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 antidepressant drugs. \u00adThe women are taken from their beds by the nurses and given electroconvulsive therapy before being put to sleep again. All under the watchful eye of Dr William Sargant.<\/h3>\n

The Sleep Room<\/em><\/a> is a chilling expos\u00e9 of Sargant\u2019s bizarre psychiatric treatments, which were inflicted on hundreds of women with mental illness \u2013 among them the actor Celia Imrie. At the story\u2019s centre is a sinister and charismatic doctor, who was a hugely influential figure in post-war British society \u2013 lauded by Robert Graves and Aldous Huxley as well as regularly appearing on the BBC. When Sargant died in 1988, the obituaries were glowing.<\/h3>\n

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\u2019s stories for the first time, as well as delving into the murky history of Sargant\u2019s links with MI5 and the CIA, both of which took a close interest in his disturbing efforts to reprogram the human mind.<\/h3>\n

As compulsive as a thriller, The Sleep Room<\/em> finally gets to the truth of a scandal at the heart of the British medical establishment.<\/h3>\n

The Sleep Room<\/em> was published in the UK in April 2025 by The Bridge Street Press<\/a> (Little, Brown), and\u00a0 in July 2025 by Abrams Press<\/a> in America.<\/h3>\n

Praise for The Sleep Room:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

‘Shocking… a damning portrait of a man who, in the name of psychiatric progress, left a trail of broken lives in his wake’ Ian Sansom, <\/span>Telegraph<\/em><\/span>, five stars<\/span><\/h3>\n

“Richly sourced and admirable in its clarity about the importance of speaking to those who were treated by and knew Sargant” Dr Kate Womersley,\u00a0The Lancet<\/i><\/h3>\n

A journalist and thriller writer, Stock makes the most of his subject\u2019s lurid fascination, from Sargant\u2019s vaulting ego and simian menace\u00a0. . . to his private torments\u2019 Emily Eakin, New York Times<\/em><\/h3>\n

\u2018Written with nuance and tact, The Sleep Room is a chilling expos\u00e9 into psychiatric care that will resonate deeply [with] readers and, especially, true crime fans\u2019 Fernanda Figueroa, Associated Press<\/em>
\n
\n‘Compelling’ \u2013 Francesca Angelini,<\/strong> <\/i><\/span>Sunday Times<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

‘A gripping expose’ \u2013 Miranda Seymour, <\/span>Financial Times<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

\u2018Powerful . . . it is to Stock\u2019s great credit that he places patient testimony centre stage\u2019 Dr Rachel Clarke, Observer,<\/em> Book of the Week<\/h3>\n

‘<\/span>Lacerating<\/span>‘ \u2013 <\/span>Blake Morrison,<\/span>\u00a0Guardian,<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>Book of the Day<\/span><\/h3>\n

‘Remarkable and revealing’ – Tortoise Media<\/h3>\n

‘Shocking investigation\u2019 \u2013 Times<\/em>, Best Books of 2025<\/h3>\n

‘Absorbing and meticulous’ \u2013 The Week<\/em><\/h3>\n

‘Meticulously researched’ – Literary Review<\/em><\/h3>\n

‘Lucid…gripping and shocking’ – Leyla Sanai, Spectator<\/em><\/h3>\n

‘An essential work’ \u2013 Lobster<\/em> magazine<\/h3>\n

‘A beautifully researched, wildly unsettling study of a psychiatrist running amok’ \u2013 Sam Knight, author of The Premonitions Bureau.<\/em><\/h3>\n

\u2018A gripping and harrowing account of a distinguished medical authority who pushed a therapeutic regime of electroshock, brain surgery and mind-bending drugs to its limit and beyond\u2019 \u2013 Mike Jay, author of Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind.<\/em><\/h3>\n

\u2018A fascinating and compelling account of some of psychiatry\u2019s darkest practices that has resonance today\u2019 \u2013 Joanna Moncrieff, author of Chemically Imbalanced: The Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth.<\/em><\/h3>\n

\u2018Encompasses sex, drugs, brainwashing, intelligence operations, murder and several scandals\u2019 \u2013 Frank Tallis, author of Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna and the Discovery of the Modern Mind.<\/em><\/h3>\n

A devastating account of the effects one unchecked psychiatrist had on vulnerable mental patients\u2019 \u2013 Lisa Appignanesi, author of Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women<\/em> and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present.<\/em><\/h3>\n

\u2018A chilling case study in dangerous psychiatry, Stock\u2019s gripping expos\u00e9 of the invasive and reckless interventions inflicted on women in the Sleep Room will keep you wide awake\u2019 \u2013 Cordelia Fine, author of Patriarchy Inc.<\/em> and Testosterone Rex.<\/em><\/h3>\n

If you or a family member were treated by Sargant, or you worked with him, please contact<\/a> Jon, either anonymously or on the record, by emailing him at Jon@williamsargant.com.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sleep Room by Jon Stock ‘Shocking… a damning portrait of a man who, in the name of psychiatric progress, left a trail of broken lives in his wake’\u00a0Telegraph, five stars ‘Compelling’ \u2013 Sunday Times ‘A gripping expose’ \u2013 Financial Times ‘Beautifully researched, wildly unsettling’ \u2013 Sam Knight, author of The Premonitions Bureau The Royal… Continue reading William Sargant<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamsargant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamsargant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamsargant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamsargant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamsargant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/williamsargant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23,"href":"https:\/\/williamsargant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamsargant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}