Madness Explained
Psychosis and Human Nature
Published on 5. June 2003
Book
Hardback
656 pages
978-0-7139-9249-6 (ISBN)
Description
Today most of us accept the consensus that madness is a medical condition - an illness that can be identified, classified and treated with drugs like any other. In this work, Richard Bentall shatters the myths that surround madness. He shows that there is no reassuring dividing line between mental health and mental illness. Severe mental disorders can no longer be reduced to brain chemistry, but must be understood psychologically, as part of normal behaviour and human nature. Bentall argues that we need a radically new way of thinking about psychosis and its treatment. Could it be that it is fear of madness, rather than the madness itself, that is our problem?
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Illustrations
glossary, notes, index
Dimensions
Height: 245 mm
Width: 165 mm
Thickness: 49 mm
Weight
984 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7139-9249-6 (9780713992496)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
The origins of our misunderstandings about madness: Emil Kraepelin's big idea - the origins of modern psychiatric theory; after Kraepelin - how the standard approach to psychiatric classification evolved; the great classification crisis - how it was discovered that the standard system was scientifically meaningless; fool's gold - why psychiatric diagnoses do not work; the boundaries of madness - why there is no boundary between sanity and madness; them and us - modern psychiatry as a cultural system. A better picture of the soul: the significance of biology - psychosis, the brain and the concept of "disease"; mental life and human nature - madness and the social brain; madness and emotions - human emotions and the negative symptoms of psychosis. Some madnesses explained: depression and the pathology of self - core psychological processes that are important in severe mental illness; a colourful malady - the psychology of mania; abnormal attitudes - the psychology of delusional beliefs; on the paranoid world view - towards a unified theory of depression, mania and paranoia; the illusion of reality - the psychology of hallucinations; the language of madness - the communication difficulties of psychotic patients. Causes and their effects: things are much more complex than they seem - the instability of psychosis, and the solution of the riddle of psychiatric classification; from the cradle to the clinic; psychosis considered from a developmental perspective; the trails of life - how life experiences shape madness; madness and society - some implications of post-Kraepelinian psychopathology.