"Life at the Bottom offers a searing account - probably the best yet published - of life in the underclass and why it persists as it does. ". "Theodore Dalrymple, a British psychiatrist who treats the poor in a slum hospital and a prison in England, has apparently seen it all. Yet in listening to and observing his patients, he is continually astonished by the latest twist of depravity that exceeds even his own considerable experience. He uses a remarkable gift for reportage to recount the behavior of his patients and to analyze its implications in underclass life and for our society as a whole. "--BOOK JACKET.