Why Psychosis Is Not So Crazy


Book Description

An expert’s guide to humanizing psychosis through communication offers key insights for family and friends to support loved ones during mental health crises. Are we all a little crazy? Roughly 15 percent of the population will have a psychotic experience, in which they lose contact with reality. Yet we often struggle to understand and talk about psychosis. Interactions between people build on the stories they tell each other—stories about the past, about who they are or what they want. In psychosis we can no longer rely on these stories, this shared language. So how should we communicate with someone experiencing reality in a radically different way than we are? Drawing on his work in psychoanalysis, Stijn Vanheule seeks to answer this question, which carries significant implications for mental health as a whole. With a combination of theory from Freud to Lacan, present-day research, and compelling examples from his own patients and well-known figures such as director David Lynch and artist Yayoi Kusama, he explores psychosis in an engaging way that can benefit those suffering from it as well as the people who care for and interact with them.




Think You're Crazy? Think Again


Book Description

Are you troubled by hearing voices or seeing visions that others do not? Do you believe that other people are trying to harm you or control you? Do you feel that something odd is going on that you can’t explain or that things are happening around you with a special meaning? Do you worry that other people can read your mind or that thoughts are being put in your head? Think You’re Crazy? Think Again provides an effective step-by-step aid to understanding your problems, making positive changes and promoting recovery. Written by experts in the field, this book will help you to: understand how your problems developed and what keeps them going use questionnaires and monitoring sheets to identify and track changes in the links between your experiences, how you make sense of these and how you feel and behave learn how to change thoughts, feelings and behaviour for the better practice skills between sessions using worksheets Based on clinically proven techniques and filled with examples of how cognitive therapy can help people with distressing psychotic experiences, Think You’re Crazy? Think Again will be a valuable resource for people with psychosis.







First Episode Psychosis


Book Description

The new edition of this popular handbook has been thoroughly updated to include the latest data concerning treatment of first-episode patients. Drawing from their experience, the authors discuss the presentation and assessment of the first psychotic episode and review the appropriate use of antipsychotic agents and psychosocial approaches in effective management.




One Century of Karl Jaspers' General Psychopathology


Book Description

2013 sees the centenary of Jaspers' foundation of psychopathology as a science with the publication of his magnum opus the Allgemeine Psychopathologie (General Psychopathology), Many of the issues concerning methodology and diagnosis are today the subject of much discussion and debate. This volume brings together leading psychiatrists and philosophers to discuss the impact of this volume, its relevance today, and the legacy it left.




No One Cares About Crazy People


Book Description

New York Times-bestselling author Ron Powers offers a searching, richly researched narrative of the social history of mental illness in America paired with the deeply personal story of his two sons' battles with schizophrenia. From the centuries of torture of "lunatiks" at Bedlam Asylum to the infamous eugenics era to the follies of the anti-psychiatry movement to the current landscape in which too many families struggle alone to manage afflicted love ones, Powers limns our fears and myths about mental illness and the fractured public policies that have resulted. Braided with that history is the moving story of Powers's beloved son Kevin -- spirited, endearing, and gifted -- who triumphed even while suffering from schizophrenia until finally he did not, and the story of his courageous surviving son Dean, who is also schizophrenic. A blend of history, biography, memoir, and current affairs ending with a consideration of where we might go from here, this is a thought-provoking look at a dreaded illness that has long been misunderstood. "Extraordinary and courageous . . . No doubt if everyone were to read this book, the world would change." -- New York Times Book Review




I Am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help!


Book Description

'This book fills a tremendous void...' wrote E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., about the first edition of I AM NOT SICK, I Don't Need Help! Ten years later, it still does. Dr. Amador's research on poor insight was inspired by his attempts to help his brother Henry, who developed schizophrenia, accept treatment. Like tens of millions of others diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Henry did not believe he was ill. In this latest edition, 6 new chapters have been added, new research on anosognosia (lack of insight) is presented and new advice, relying on lessons learned from thousands of LEAP seminar participants, is given to help readers quickly and effectively use Dr. Amador s method for helping someone accept treatment. I AM NOT SICK, I Don't Need Help! is not just a reference for mental health practitioners or law enforcement professionals. It is a must-read guide for family members whose loved ones are battling mental illness. Read and learn as have hundreds of thousands of others...to LEAP-Listen, Empathize, Agree, and Partner-and help your patients and loved ones accept the treatment they need.




CBT for Psychosis


Book Description

This book offers a new approach to understanding and treating psychotic symptoms using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT for Psychosis shows how this approach clears the way for a shift away from a biological understanding and towards a psychological understanding of psychosis. Stressing the important connection between mental illness and mental health, further topics of discussion include: the assessment and formulation of psychotic symptoms how to treat psychotic symptoms using CBT CBT for specific and co-morbid conditions CBT of bipolar disorders. This book brings together international experts from different aspects of this fast developing field and will be of great interest to all mental health professionals working with people suffering from psychotic symptoms.




Mental Disorder and Crime


Book Description

Contributors to this volume present and discuss new data which suggest that major mental disorder substantially increases the risk of violent crime. These findings come at a crucial time, since those who suffer from mental disorders are increasingly living in the community, rather than in institutions. The book describes the magnitude and complexity of the problem and offers hope that humane, effective intervention can prevent violent crime being committed by the seriously mentally disordered.




Insane Consequences


Book Description

"In this in-depth critique of the mental healthcare system, a leading advocate for the mentally ill argues that the system fails to adequately treat the most seriously ill. He proposes major reforms to bring help to schizophrenics, the severely bipolar, and others"--




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