ISPS Newsletter Spring 2005

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

ISPS Newsletter Spring 2005 www.isps.org THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENTS OF THE SCHIZOPHRENIAS AND OTHER PSYCHOSES Vol. no. 9 - Spring Issue 2005 ISPS - activity all time high! people out there think that it is of no conference are well underway. value to offer "talking therapies" to Manuel and the other local organisers Dear members and people suffering from schizophrenia! have received more than 50 sugges- friends of the ISPS In Madrid next year we will have a tions for symposia, so we can already debate on that, and in the General at this stage promise you an exciting assembly of the ISPS in the same professional (and personal) experi- The activity in ISPS' local chapters is meeting, we will discuss the name of ence when you go to Madrid. flourishing, with national symposia the organisation. I think we should So, what else keeps the board occu- being held in many of our membership allow ourselves sufficient time to think pied? We try to support the develop- coun-tries, as you will see from this this through. The General assembly should make some recommendations ment of local groups, release new edition of the newsletter. The activity for the new 2006-board, and the final books in the ISPS book series, struggle on the web-based discussion lists is also decision be taken in 2009. with how to make a financial basis for on a "historical all time high", thanks our organisation, among other things. to Chris Burford's never ending energy Time flies, and soon it will be 2009.... As we are now getting close to the and enthusiasm. One hot topic this To organise a big international confe- Madrid meeting, people should start spring has been the future name of rence like the ISPS international sym- thinking about candidates for the next our organisation; a broad variety of posia needs a lot of work and prepara- board. Suggestions can be made to suggestions have come up, and the tion. Countries/ cities interested in the ISPS secretariat, and we really hope views differ on whether we should keep hosting ISPS 2009 now should make to see a lot of activity and engagement the concept of schizophrenia in. their bid to the board, so that every- around this process. thing can be ready for presentation in The concept of schizophrenia and its Madrid. As I am writing this, the first warm clinical and research validity and use- spring days are coming to my part of Another very important task for this, fulness is very much questioned, both the world. For those of you situated and the next board, will be to consider within ISPS-circles and in the broader on the northern hemisphere, I share mental health community. The major the ISPS promotion of a journal on the psychological therapies of psycho- your wishes for a long and warm question that needs to be addressed sis. Some journal experts have been summer. For you in the southern parts is: who will highlight the connection consulted about the first steps and the of the world, I hope winter will treat between schizophrenia and psychothe- board intend to have a proposal ready you well! rapy/psychological treatments if not for the Madrid conference. And, as Best wishes the ISPS? We should bear in mind you will see from elsewhere in this Jan Olav Johannessen when discussing this that a lot of issue, the preparations for the Madrid Chair WELCOME TO MADRID SPAIN 13 – 16 JUNE 2006 newsletter Editorial Objectives of ISPS O n nce again the ISPS newsletter shows the ISPS secretariat development of ISPS as a worldwide organisation The ISPS secretariat is a link between our with meetings and local groups in an increasing members and the executive committee; Promote the appropriate use number of countries. On the front page our maintaining the website, printing and of psychotherapy and psycho- chairman Jan Olav is telling about exciting plans distributing the ISPS newsletter, keeping a logical treatments for persons and challenges that the board is preparing for database of ISPS members and local groups, with schizophrenias and other discussions and decisions on the ISPS congress in and answering any queries for information psychoses Madrid in June 2006. and other services. The secretariat is partly hosted by the Centre The newsletter and the ISPS website www.isps.org Promote the integration of for Psychotherapy and Psychosocial are giving you information about these exciting psychological treatments in Rehabilitation of Psychoses (SEPREP), a non- developments, as well as about ideas, experiences, treatment plans and compre- commercial Norwegian foundation and meetings and books that may be useful to you in hensive treatment for all network of users, clinicians and researchers your involvement to promote psychological treat- persons with schizophrenias promoting psychological treatment of the ments of psychoses. But the newsletter and the and other psychoses psychoses. In addition, Antonia Svensson in website are also open for more local groups and Athens works part-time as ISPS Organiser and members to share their ideas and experiences with Promote the appropriate use does most of the work of the secretariat that others! of psychological understanding and psychotherapeutic can be done electronically. Antonia can be In this issue of the newsletter we are starting a series approaches in all phases of contacted on the [email protected] email address. of brief biographical sketches of honorary life time the disorders including both Address to the ISPS secretariat members of ISPS. These persons have been major early in the onset and in longer contributors to the ISPS as a network and a society, lasting disorders ISPS c/o SEPREP, Jernbanetorget 4 A, as well as to the field of psychological treatments N-0154 Oslo, Norway of psychoses. It is important to be reminded and Promote research into Tel +47 23 10 37 77 / Fax +47 23 10 37 79 inspired by their work, and it is important for new individual, family, group E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.isps.org members of ISPS to get some knowledge about the psychological therapies, Bank account: 5005 06 56648 preventive measures and other roots and development of the ISPS. Den norske Bank, Oslo, Norway psycho-social programmes for The majority of the ISPS members are members those with psychotic disorders ISPS honorary life time members through their local ISPS groups or chapters, which • Yryö Alonen, Finland is in agreement with the decision of the board to Support treatments that put emphasis on the importance of local groups include individual, family, • Gaetano Benedetti, Switzerland with locally active members as the main basis for group and network approaches • Johan Cullberg, Sweden the organisation. and treatment methods that • Murray Jackson, UK The board now also wants to engage institutions are derived from • Jarl Jørstad, Norway and other organisations in promoting the same psychoanalysis, cognitive- objectives by signing up for institutional member- behavioural, systemic and • Julian Leff, UK ships. We encourage our members to make known psycho- educational • Christian Müller, Switzerland approaches to institutions and organisations that they in this • Barbro Sandin, Sweden way may support psychological treatments for psychoses, and at the same time open another Advance education, training • Harold Searles, USA and knowledge of mental channel for making their own work and events • Helm Stierlin, Germany health professionals in the known. Torleif Ruud psychological therapies • John Strauss, USA Editor • Lyman Wynne, USA The ISPS executive committee 2003 – 2006 ISPS board elections 2006 • Jan Olav Johannessen (Norway) It will be time for ISPS board elections once again in 2006. • Brian Martindale (UK) In accordance with our constitution, the board has chosen • Patrick McGorry (Australia) an election committee to oversee the elections. • Ann-Louise Silver (USA) This committee consists of: • Lyn Chua (Singapore) Ann-Louise Silver, Brian Martindale, Manuel González de Chávez Menéndez, Ivan Urlic and Jan Olav Johannessen. • Manuel Gonzalez de Chavez (Spain) The method of voting will be clarified in the next months. • Ivan Urlic (Croatia) ISPS members are now invited to nominate persons to • John Read (New Zealand) stand in the elections. Nominations must be proposed and seconded by sub-scribing ISPS members, may be accom- Co-opted board member: panied by a supporting statement, and should be emailed • Torleif Ruud (Norway). to Antonia Svensson, ISPS Organiser. Email: [email protected] 2 Vol. no. 9 - Spring Issue 2005 newsletter “YOU PARTICIPATE” Dear friends, on behalf of the organizing committee of the ISPS Madrid 2006, I want to thank you for your participation in the next ISPS Congress which will undoubtedly be the largest world event ever dedicated to psychotherapies of the psychoses, up to the year 2009. We have received a large sum of pro- with presentations of any type accepted According to the estimation of our posals for all the main sessions of the by the scientific committee of our con- professional organizers, Viajes Iberia congress: more than 30 workshop gress, we offer grants that reduce regi- Congresos, our participation in Decem- abstracts and 50 abstracts for symposia stration by 50%, with an application ber of this year will exceed 500 abstracts and debates. These have come from form. This information is included on and about 1500 persons will attend all the continents, from all the pro- the website and those who believe they the Congress. We predict it will be a fessions involved in this mental health meet the conditions for this should great XV Congress of the ISPS. As with field and from practically all the aspects contact our Technical Secretary. all large Congresses, ISPS MADRID of the psychoses and psychothera- The information and application form 2006 must have few plenary sessions, peutic approaches, techniques and for the Feinsilver Award is also on the but it will have great variety of inter- modalities.
Recommended publications
  • Why, When and How to Ask About Childhood Abuse John Read, Paul Hammersley & Thom Rudegeair
    Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2007), vol. 13, 101–110 doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.106.002840 Why, when and how to ask about childhood abuse John Read, Paul Hammersley & Thom Rudegeair Abstract Subscribers to the medical model of the causation of madness and distress emphasise the role of genes and can severely underestimate the impact of traumatic events on the development of the human mind. This bias persists despite the worldwide popular wisdom that mental illness arises when bad things happen to people. Childhood physical and sexual abuse and neglect are extremely common experiences among those who develop serious mental health problems. Unfortunately, victims are typically reluctant to disclose their histories of abuse and practitioners are often reluctant to seek it. We explore the nature and extent of the problem and the apparent reasons for the pervasive neglect of this important area of care. Then, on the basis of our experience in New Zealand, we provide guidelines on asking patients about childhood abuse and describe an ongoing initiative in the UK to further advance our understanding of the impact of abuse and our skills to detect it and treat survivors. Mental health experts do not have a proud history that there is such a thing as ‘acquired vulnerability’ when it comes to understanding how often very bad and that this can be ‘due to the influence of trauma, things happen to children. Just three decades ago specific diseases, perinatal complications, family a prominent psychiatric textbook reported that the experiences, adolescent peer interactions, and other prevalence of incest was one per million (Henderson, life events that either enhance or inhibit the develop- 1975).
    [Show full text]
  • Boekje Congres.Indd
    PART TWO ABSTRACT BOOK 9 17 September Morning programm: Plenary session from 10.15 hours till 13.00 hours Chair: Elisa Carter , MBA (NL) CEO of GGzE Eindhoven en de Kempen (Mental Health organization, clinical, polyclinic and outreached care) Member of the advising board (RvZ) for the ministry of Health Care Netherlands Member of the board of commissioners for healthcare research (Bestuur ZoNMW) Shortly after I had accepted the CEO position at the mental heath institute Maastricht I met Professor Marius Romme. We had one hour to get acquainted. We exchanged briefl y each others career, some insights on the national heath care policy and the goals for mental health services in Maastricht. I was inspired by his passionate approach and logical reasoning while explaining his research on hearing voices. This inspiration help me to focus on an other way to organize the care in such a way that we can meet the Elisa Carter MBA demands of service users effectively. Hearing voices has been regarded by psychiatry as “auditory hallucinations” and as a symptom of schizophrenia. Traditionally the usual treatment for voice hearing has been major tranquillizers and specifi c medication administered to reduce hallucinations and other symptoms. However not everyone responds to this treatment. Ideally, most professionals would see all interventions as cooperate ventures between professionals and service user, but the perception of users is often different. Nearly always, the professional is in a position of power over the service user. In a culture where the person with a mental health problem expects the work done by a professional to be akin to arranging a ceremony with supernatural signifi cance, the power is not located in either the user or the professional.
    [Show full text]
  • Schizophrenia'
    Hunter Address: Poverty and 'Schizophrenia' Can Poverty Drive You Mad? 'Schizophrenia', Socio-Economic Status and the Case for Primary Prevention John Read, University of Auckland This paper constitutes the basis of the Address that Dr Read will present at the 2011 NZPsS Conference in association with the Hunter Award. For several decades the dominance of a rather simplistic, reductionist and women and children. pessimistic ‘medical model’ has, especially in relation to ‘schizophrenia’, – Poverty results in suicide, relegated poverty and its attendant disadvantages (child neglect and abuse, depression, and severe mental overcrowding, dysfunctional families, etc.) to the role of mere triggers of a illness. supposed, but unproven, genetic predisposition. For seventy years, however, research has repeatedly demonstrated not only that poverty is a powerful – Poverty is directly linked to predictor of who develops psychosis, and who is diagnosed ‘schizophrenic’ violence. (with or without a family history of psychosis), but that poverty is more . We believe that the strongly related to ‘schizophrenia’ than to other mental health problems. eradication of poverty is the This paper argues that an evidence-based resolution to the longstanding first step in primary prevention. debate between ‘social causation’ and ‘social drift’ explanations is that the (Albee, 2006, p. 451) former perspective explains how poverty is a major cause of psychosis and the latter explains how poverty is involved in its maintenance. Poverty is After briefly discussing the also a predictor of diagnosis and treatment selection, sometimes regardless relationship between poverty and of actual symptomatology. Evidence is also presented demonstrating mental health in general, this paper that relative poverty may be an even stronger predictor of mental health will (i) examine some of the problems problems, including ‘schizophrenia’, than poverty per se.
    [Show full text]
  • Negative Childhood Experiences and Mental Health: Theoretical, Clinical and Primary Prevention Implications{ John Read and Richard P
    The British Journal of Psychiatry (2012) 200, 89–91. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.111.096727 Editorial Negative childhood experiences and mental health: theoretical, clinical and primary prevention implications{ John Read and Richard P. Bentall Summary After decades of ignoring or minimising the prevalence and a range of psychological processes, including attachment and effects of negative events in childhood, researchers have dissociation, is shedding light on the specific aetiologies of recently established that a broad range of adverse childhood discrete phenomena such as hallucinations and delusions. It events are significant risk factors for most mental health is argued that the theoretical, clinical and primary prevention problems, including psychosis. Researchers are now implications of our belated focus on childhood are profound. investigating the biological and psychological mechanisms involved. In addition to the development of a traumagenic Declaration of interest neurodevelopmental model for psychosis, the exploration of None. the product of an unwanted pregnancy; early loss of parents via John Read (pictured) is Editor of the journal Psychosis and was Coordinating death or abandonment; witnessing interparental violence; Editor of Models of Madness: Psychological, Social and Biological Approaches to Schizophrenia (Routledge, 2004). Richard Bentall is Professor of Clinical dysfunctional parenting (particularly ‘affectionless overcontrol’); Psychology at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of Madness parental substance misuse,
    [Show full text]
  • From the Committee Hearing Voices Network Aotearoa
    HEARING VOICES NETWORK AOTEAROA NZ NEWSLETTER providing support & information on hearing voices and visions ISSN1177-536X Te Reo Orooro ISSUE 7 July 2012 www.hearingvoices.org.nz FROM THE LIVING WITH VOICES, an afternoon with the Hearing COMMITTEE Voices Network Aotearoa NZ followed by our AGM. Hi all. Join us for the afternoon,. We have three wonderful speakers to enlighten you Since we last wrote, and inform you about how it is to be Living with Voices: we have had two Hearing Voices as a meaningful Human experience- A research Summary by Dr wonderful committee John Read : Dr John Read is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Auckland members leave. The University. One of his main areas of work and research is in the area of hearing talented Vanessa Beavan, who has voices and Psychosis. He is a member of The Hearing Voices Network as well as been with us since ISPS. Dr Read has written many books and is an interesting and heartfelt the start of the speaker . HVNANZ resigned Integration of Culture and Personal experience for living with Voices by Egan and has taken a posi- Bides: Egan Bidois will speak about his own experiences, how he has tion in Australia. I am “embedded them” and come to peace with them in his head/life/spirit etc. Egan sure Vanessa will con- tinue her work with now works in mental health and will also incorporate Maori Cultural aspects voice hearers with all that he values, and how he perceives such experiences in relation to our cultural definitions, and how these secure and cement his ongoing wellness.
    [Show full text]
  • Prejudice and Schizophrenia: a Review of the 'Mental Illness Is an Illness
    Acta Psychiatr Scand 2006: 114: 303–318 Copyright Ó 2006 The Authors All rights reserved Journal Compilation Ó 2006 Blackwell Munksgaard DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2006.00824.x ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA Review article Prejudice and schizophrenia: a review of the Ômental illness is an illness like any otherÕ approach Read J, Haslam N, Sayce L, Davies E. Prejudice and schizophrenia: a J. Read1, N. Haslam2, L. Sayce3, review of the Ômental illness is an illness like any otherÕ approach. E. Davies4 1Department of Psychology, The University of Auckland, Objective: Many anti-stigma programmes use the Ômental illness is an Auckland, New Zealand, 2Department of Psychology, illness like any otherÕ approach. This review evaluates the effectiveness The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, of this approach in relation to schizophrenia. 3Disability Rights Commission, London, UK, and Method: The academic literature was searched, via PsycINFO and 4Institute of Public Policy, Auckland University of MEDLINE, to identify peer-reviewed studies addressing whether Technology, Auckland, New Zealand public espousal of a biogenetic paradigm has increased over time, and whether biogenetic causal beliefs and diagnostic labelling are associated with less negative attitudes. Results: The public, internationally, continues to prefer psychosocial to biogenetic explanations and treatments for schizophrenia. Key words: prejudice; attitudes; stigma; mental illness; Biogenetic causal theories and diagnostic labelling as ÔillnessÕ, are both schizophrenia positively related to perceptions of dangerousness and Dr John Read, Psychology Department, The University unpredictability, and to fear and desire for social distance. of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Conclusion: An evidence-based approach to reducing discrimination Zealand.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mental Health Act an Alternative Review
    THE MENTAL HEALTH ACT AN ALTERNATIVE REVIEW DECEMBER 2018 Reg Charity Number: 1094021 Acknowledgements This report was written by Akiko Hart and Rai Waddingham, trustees of the National Hearing Voices Network on behalf of the National Hearing Voices Network. We would like to thank the following people and groups for their support in creating this report. HEARING VOICES NETWORK MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS We would like to thank those members and supporters who attended our Mental Health Act event, completed our survey and/or shared their concerns with us in other ways. We hope that this review goes some way to redressing the failures of the official report and that it stimulates conversations that can lead to real change.. SUPPORT WITH THE SURVEY A special thank you to Professor Nimisha Patel, University of East London, and Suzanna Chojnacki and Tarun Limbachya, trainee clinical psychologists, who helped us create and analyse the survey. CONTRIBUTIONS TO CONTENT & MEDIA DISTRIBUTION We would like to thank Prof. John Read, one of our trustees, for drafting the Community Treatment Order (CTO) section. His knowledge of the research evidence surrounding CTOs was invaluable. We would also like to thank him for leading on the distribution of this review in the media. About the National Hearing Voices Network The English National Hearing Voice Network (known as HVN England) is a registered charity which offers information, support and understanding to people who hear voices, see visions or have other unusual perceptions. For more information, see: www.hearing-voices.org Please note: This version of the report was published on 8 December, featuring edits on p9 to clarify our section on short-term detention following feedback.
    [Show full text]
  • The Effectiveness of Electroconvulsive Therapy: a Literature Review
    The effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy: A literature review JOHN READ1 and RICHARD BENTALL2 1Department of Psychology, University of Auckland (New Zeland) 2Department of Psychology, Bangor University, Wales (United Kingdom) SUMMARY. Aim – To review the literature on the efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy [ECT], with a particular focus on depression, its primary target group. Methods – PsycINFO, Medline, previous reviews and meta-analyses were searched in an attempt to identify all studies comparing ECT with simulated-ECT [SECT]. Results – These placebo controlled studies show min- imal support for effectiveness with either depression or ‘schizophrenia’ during the course of treatment (i.e. only for some patients, on some measures, sometimes perceived only by psychiatrists but not by other raters), and no evidence, for either diagnostic group, of any benefits beyond the treatment period. There are no placebo-controlled studies evaluating the hypothesis that ECT prevents suicide, and no robust evidence from other kinds of studies to support the hypothesis. Conclusions – Given the strong evidence (summarised here) of persistent and, for some, permanent brain dysfunction, primarily evidenced in the form of retrograde and anterograde amnesia, and the evidence of a slight but significant increased risk of death, the cost-benefit analysis for ECT is so poor that its use cannot be scientifically justified. Declaration of Interest: Neither author has any financial conflicts of interest in relation to this paper. KEY WORDS: ECT, evidence-based medicine, literature review, cost-benefit analysis. Received 22.12.2009 – Final version received 11.03.2010 – Accepted 14.03.2010. INTRODUCTION therapy”, and that his “persistence was admirable” (Gazdag et al., 2009).
    [Show full text]
  • Childhood Trauma, Psychosis and Schizophrenia: a Literature Review with Theoretical and Clinical Implications
    Acta Psychiatr Scand 2005: 112: 330–350 Copyright Ó 2005 Blackwell Munksgaard All rights reserved DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2005.00634.x ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA Review article Childhood trauma, psychosis and schizophrenia: a literature review with theoretical and clinical implications Read J, van Os J, Morrison AP, Ross CA. Childhood trauma, psychosis J. Read1, J. van Os2,3, and schizophrenia: a literature review with theoretical and clinical A. P. Morrison4,5, C. A. Ross6 implications. 1Department of Psychology, The University of Auckland, Acta Psychiatr Scand 2005: 112: 330–350. Ó 2005 Blackwell Munksgaard. Auckland, New Zealand, 2Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Objective: To review the research addressing the relationship of The Netherlands, 3Division of Psychological Medicine, childhood trauma to psychosis and schizophrenia, and to discuss the Institute of Psychiatry, London, 4Department of theoretical and clinical implications. Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, 5Psychology Services, Bolton Stafford and Trafford Method: Relevant studies and previous review papers were identified 6 via computer literature searches. Mental Health Partnership, Manchester, UK and Colin Results: Symptoms considered indicative of psychosis and A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma, Richardson, TX, USA schizophrenia, particularly hallucinations, are at least as strongly related to childhood abuse and neglect as many other mental health problems. Recent large-scale general population studies indicate the relationship is a causal one, with a dose-effect. Conclusion: Several psychological and biological mechanisms by Key words: child abuse; trauma; psychosis; which childhood trauma increases risk for psychosis merit attention. schizophrenia; hallucinations; delusions; literature Integration of these different levels of analysis may stimulate a more review genuinely integrated bio-psycho-social model of psychosis than John Read, Department of Psychology, The University of currently prevails.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding and Treating Madness: Biology Or Relationships?
    Understanding and Treating Madness: Biology or Relationships? A review of Doctoring the Mind: Is Our Current Treatment of Mental Illness Really Any Good? by Richard P. Bentall New York, NY: New York University Press, 2009. 364 pp. ISBN 978-0-8147-9148-6. $29.95 Reviewed by Arthur C. Bohart Richard Bentall’s thesis can be stated simply. He says at the end of Doctoring the Mind: Is Our Current Treatment of Mental Illness Really Any Good?: In this book I have argued that, by any reasonable standard, the dominant paradigm in psychiatry, which assumes that mental illnesses are genetically influenced brain diseases, has been a spectacular failure. Despite enormous expense, its benefits for those suffering from the most severe forms of mental disorder have been slight. [Psychiatry’s] failures have been the consequence of tenaciously held but erroneous assumptions about the nature of mental illness. They reflect a kind of intellectual myopia, which has blinded professionals to the fact that the distress in human beings is usually caused by unsatisfactory relationships with other human beings. They are the consequence of ignoring what has been obvious to most ordinary people, that warmth and kindness are necessary to promote psychological healing. What is needed is a more compassionate approach that places the therapeutic relationship at the center of clinical practice. (pp. 264–265) Bentall espouses a position that some might call antipsychiatric, and he has been lumped into that grouping. However, he denies that he is an antipsychiatrist. Indeed, he is distinctly different from the critics of psychiatry of the 1960s such as R.
    [Show full text]
  • Making Meaning of Voices
    Smith ScholarWorks Theses, Dissertations, and Projects 2015 Content and metaphor : making meaning of voices Emma P. Gabriner Smith College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Gabriner, Emma P., "Content and metaphor : making meaning of voices" (2015). Masters Thesis, Smith College, Northampton, MA. https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses/715 This Masters Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations, and Projects by an authorized administrator of Smith ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Emma Gabriner Content and Metaphor: Making Meaning of Voices Abstract The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how people who hear voices have learned to cope with their voices, and how they attribute the function or role of the voice(s) in their lives. This thesis asked whether traumatic, lived experiences are related to the content of voices. This study used a narrative-inquiry approach to speak with nine adults about their experiences hearing voices. The interview questionnaire was adapted from the Maastricht Interview and Construct (Escher & Romme, 2000). Participants were interviewed in person or over the phone. The recovery model was the theoretical basis for this study. This model addresses the notion that people can live meaningful lives despite mental health challenges. The recovery approach to mental health treatment values peer-based methods of support, and encourages the belief that mental health diagnoses do not define personal identity, nor expect medication to be the only treatment option. This thesis used ideas of recovery based on the Hearing Voices Network, which encourages people to broaden their awareness of hearing voices, visions, or other unusual or extreme experiences.
    [Show full text]
  • Can Attachment Theory Help Explain the Relationship Between Childhood Adversity and Psychosis?
    Can Attachment Theory Help Explain the Relationship Between Childhood Adversity and Psychosis? John Read and Andrew Gumley Dominance of the medical model or several decades our efforts to understand the causes of human distress, despair, and confusion have been impeded by the dominance of a simplis- Ftic, reductionist paradigm interested primarily or exclusively in genes and neurotransmitters (Bentall, 2003; Read, Mosher, & Bentall, 2004). This ‘medical model’ has been enthusiastically supported by the pharmaceutical industry, which has much to gain from promulgating an ideology that minimizes psycho-social causes (Mosher, Gosden, & Beder, 2004; Read, 2008). Although the dominance of this model pervades all categories of psychiatric diagnoses, nowhere has it been stronger or more damaging than in the field of psychosis. Since the invention of the supposed illness ‘schizophrenia’ a century ago (Bentall, 2003; Read, 2004a), millions of people worldwide have been condemned to the pessimistic, self-fulfilling, and stigmatizing belief that they are suffering from some kind of irreversible brain disease. This disease, which has wrongly been presented as largely genetically determined, supposedly has little or nothing to do with one’s life history or circumstances. It is important to realize that the public, all over the world, have never accepted the illness model of mental health problems in general, or of ‘schizo- phrenia’ in particular. In virtually every country where surveys have been conducted, the public believes that madness is primarily a reaction to bad things happening to people rather than bio-genetically based illnesses (Angermeyer & Dietrich, 2006; Read, 2007). Everywhere ‘schizophrenia’ is seen by the public (including patients and family members) to be caused by poverty, isolation, family problems, child abuse and neglect more than by faulty genes or brains.
    [Show full text]