Drop the Disorder!
Challenging the culture of psychiatric diagnosis
Published on 3. September 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-910919-46-0 (ISBN)
Description
In October 2016 Jo Watson hosted the very first `A Disorder for Everyone!' event in Birmingham, with psychologist Dr Lucy Johnstone, to explore (and explode) the culture of psychiatric diagnosis in mental health. To provide a space to continue the debate after the event, Jo also set up the now hugely popular and active Facebook group `Drop the Disorder!'.; Since then, they have delivered events in towns and cities across the UK, bringing together activists, survivors and professionals to debate psychiatric diagnosis. How and why does psychiatric diagnosis hold such power? What harm it can do? What are the alternatives to diagnosis, and how it can be positively challenged?; This book takes the themes, energy and passions of the AD4E events - bringing together many of the event speakers with others who have stories to tell and messages to share in the struggle to challenge diagnosis.; This is an essential book for everyone of us who looks beyond the labels.
Reviews / Votes
'Anyone who wants to deal with the epidemic of distress and despair in our society should engage deeply with Jo Watson's work and this massively important book.' - Johann Hari, author of Lost Connections and Chasing the ScreamMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Manchester
United Kingdom
Target group
Adult education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 243 mm
Width: 173 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
480 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-910919-46-0 (9781910919460)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2019
PCCS Books
€26.99
Available for download
Person
Jo Watson is a psychotherapist and activist. She has worked therapeutically for the last 24 years with those who have been victims of sexual abuse/violence and has campaigned on women's survivor issues for the past three decades. She is, with Dr Lucy Johnstone, the founder and organiser of the `A Disorder For Everyone!' events. She represents the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) on the steering committee for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence, is part of the `Mad in the UK' team and is a founding member of `United for Integrity in Mental Health' (UIMH).
Content
Foreword - Paula J Caplan, Introduction - Jo Watson, 1. Do you still need your psychiatric diagnosis? Critiques and alternatives - Lucy Johnstone, 2. Counselling, psychotherapy, diagnosis and the medicalisation of distress - Pete Sanders, 3. Psychiatry: a dangerous raft in a sea of despair - Sally Fox,4. The revolution will not be pathologised - Dolly Sen, 5. Problems in living: an existential perspective - Emmy van Deurzen, 6. Deceived: how Big Pharma persuades us to swallow its drugs - James Davies, 7. The language of values; the value of language - Clare Shaw, 8. `Schizophrenia' - the least scientific and most damaging of psychiatric labels - John Read and Lorenza Magliano, 9. Resistance, rebellion, resilience and recovery - Akima Thomas, 10. Why words can harm your mental health - Gary Sidley, 11. Offensive pathways: the `personality disorder' construct and the over-responsibilisation of incarcerated women - Robyn Timoclea, 12. Working therapeutically with clients with a psychiatric diagnosis - Terry Lynch, 13. Towards a trauma-informed approach with people who have experienced sexual violence - Lisa Thompson and Becky Willetts, 14. Disability, depression and the language of disorder - Chris Coombs, 15. Finding my tribe: a survivor's story - Sue Irwin, 16. From chemical imbalance to power imbalance: a manifesto for mental health - Peter Kinderman, 17. A tale of two tutors: challenging the narrative of diagnosis and disorder in counselling training - Jenny Taper and Jamie-Lee Tipping, 18. Violence under the guise of care: whiteness, colonialism and psychiatric diagnoses - Guilaine Kinouani, 19. Names matter, language matters, truth matters - Jacqui Dillon, 20. There's an intruder in our house! Counselling, psychotherapy and the biomedical model of emotional distress - Jo Watson.