DOCSLIB.ORG

A Narrative Analysis of Psychiatric Survivors’ Experiences of Recovery

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Narrative Analysis of Psychiatric Survivors’ Experiences of Recovery ABSTRACT RECOVERED VOICES, RECOVERED LIVES: A NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF PSYCHIATRIC SURVIVORS’ EXPERIENCES OF RECOVERY by Alexandra Lynne Adame The discourse of the medical model of mental illness tends to dominate people’s conceptions of the origins and treatments of psychopathology. This reductionistic discourse defines people’s experiences of psychological distress and recovery in terms of illnesses, chemical imbalances, and broken brains. However, the master narrative does not represent every individual’s lived experience, and alternative narratives of mental health and recovery exist that challenge our traditional understandings of normality and psychopathology. Using the method of interpretive interactionism, I examined how psychiatric survivors position themselves in relation to the medical model’s narrative of recovery. In its inception, the psychiatric survivor movement created a counter-narrative of protest in opposition to the medical model’s description and treatment of psychopathology. Since then, the movement has moved beyond the counter-narrative and has constructed an alternative narrative; one that is not defined in opposition to the master narrative but instead participates in an entirely different discourse. RECOVERED VOICES, RECOVERED LIVES: A NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF PSYCHIATRIC SURVIVORS’ EXPEREINCES OF RECOVERY A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Psychology by Alexandra Lynne Adame Miami University Oxford, OH 2006 Advisor: _______________________________ Roger M. Knudson, Ph.D. Reader: ________________________________ Larry M. Leitner, Ph.D. Reader: ________________________________ William B. Stiles, Ph.D. Table of Contents Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Narrative Psychology...............................................................................................1 History of Psychiatric Survivor Movement .............................................................5 Narratives of Recovery ............................................................................................9 Survivors’ Perspectives on Recovery ....................................................................12 Medical Model as Master Narrative ......................................................................17 Researcher’s Positioning in Relation to Current Study .........................................20 Method ...............................................................................................................................22 Interview and Recruitment Procedure ...................................................................22 Analysis of Narratives............................................................................................23 Results................................................................................................................................25 Dialogical Positioning of the Researcher’s Voice .................................................25 Presentation of Results...........................................................................................26 Recovery as a Process............................................................................................27 Recovery from the Mental Health System.............................................................29 Surviving Trauma ..................................................................................................34 An Epiphany of Human Compassion ....................................................................35 Recovered Voices, Recovered Lives .....................................................................37 The Myth of Incurability........................................................................................41 Deconstructing Recovery.......................................................................................44 Recovery and the Good Life..................................................................................46 It’s Not All About Me: Destiny and the Good Life...............................................51 Consciousness-Raising and Participation in Counter-Cultural Communities .......53 Discussion..........................................................................................................................59 Traditional Constructions of Recovery: Recovery as a Process, Recovery from the Mental Health System, and Surviving Trauma................................................59 Turning Point: An Epiphany of Human Compassion............................................61 Revisioning Recovery: Recovered Voices, Recovered Lives, and the Myth of Incurability.............................................................................................................62 Turning Point: Deconstructing Recovery ..............................................................63 Re-Constructing Recovery: Destiny and the Good Life........................................64 The “Empty Self,” American Psychology, and the Good Life..............................67 References..........................................................................................................................71 Appendix A........................................................................................................................75 Appendix B ........................................................................................................................77 Appendix C ........................................................................................................................78 ii Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the help of Ruta, Will, Oryx, and Cheryl who graciously agreed to participate and share their life stories with me. I am extremely grateful to each of them for the opportunity to hear and learn from their narratives of recovery. I would also like to thank my thesis advisor, Roger Knudson, for his support, encouragement, and valuable feedback he gave me from the beginning to the end of this project. Many thanks to the members of my thesis committee, Larry Leitner and Bill Stiles, for their helpful feedback and suggestions for strengthening the presentation of the thesis. Finally, I would like to thank Rachel Hamilton, Anthony Pavlo, and Darren Del Castillo for their continued friendship and support throughout the course of this project. iii Recovered Voices, Recovered Lives: A Narrative Analysis of Psychiatric Survivors’ Experiences of Recovery People live in a storied world filled with many discourses, narratives, archetypes, metaphors, and knowledge with differing degrees of privilege within various societies. In order to organize their existence within this world, persons narrate their experiences and in doing so create life narratives that relate their past to their present and imagines possible storylines of the future. The organization and structure of a person’s life narrative provides insight into one’s psychological meaning-making processes. People’s life narratives are never static, changing constantly in relation to new experiences and interactions. My interest in narrative analysis grew out of wanting to understand why people tell their stories in a particular way. I look at what cultural, social, or political discourses shaped their telling and structure of the narrative, and how they use language and metaphor to give a voice to their experiences and feelings. A group of individuals who identify themselves as psychiatric survivors has been steadily growing in numbers, strength, and voice since the early 1970s. Most psychiatric survivors are vocally critical of the current mental health system and its symptom- focused, medical model approach. This critique applies both to the model’s treatment practices and its way of conceptualizing mental distress and recovery. Beresford (1999) points out that “survivors are increasingly challenging the medicalisation of their distress and perceptions and rejecting psychiatry’s preoccupation with causation and its denial of their feelings and legitimacy” (Beresford, 1999, p. 45). As a future clinical psychologist and ally of the survivor movement, I am interested in survivors’ subjective experiences of emotional distress as well as how each individual defines and narrates the recovery process. Using Denzin’s (2001) method of interpretive interactionism, I interviewed several psychiatric survivors about their experiences of recovery, analyzed and interpreted their narratives in relation to the dominant social discourse of the medical model of mental illness. Narrative Psychology Over the past twenty years, many psychologists have taken a narrative turn in their way of thinking about people in dialogical relation to others and their social world (e.g., Bruner, 1990; Frank, 1995; Hawkins, 1999; Josselson, 1995; Klienman, 1988; McLeod, 1997; Polkinghorne, 1988; Robinson & Hawpe, 1986; Sarbin, 1986; Schafer, 1992; Spence, 1982; White & Epston, 1990). For example, Sarbin (1986) has written extensively about how people think, dream, communicate, and construct their identities in narrative form. Because of people’s tendency to story their existence in narrative form, Sarbin proposes the idea of narrative as a root metaphor for psychology, and describes his narratory principle “that human beings think, perceive, imagine and make moral choices according to narrative
Load more

Recommended publications
  • History of Psychiatry
    History of Psychiatry http://hpy.sagepub.com/ Psychiatric 'diseases' in history David Healy History of Psychiatry 2014 25: 450 DOI: 10.1177/0957154X14543980 The online version of this article can be found at: http://hpy.sagepub.com/content/25/4/450 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for History of Psychiatry can be found at: Email Alerts: http://hpy.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://hpy.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://hpy.sagepub.com/content/25/4/450.refs.html >> Version of Record - Nov 13, 2014 What is This? Downloaded from hpy.sagepub.com by guest on November 13, 2014 HPY0010.1177/0957154X14543980History of PsychiatryHealy 543980research-article2014 Article History of Psychiatry 2014, Vol. 25(4) 450 –458 Psychiatric ‘diseases’ in history © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0957154X14543980 hpy.sagepub.com David Healy Bangor University Abstract A history of psychiatry cannot step back from the question of psychiatric diseases, but the field has in general viewed psychiatric entities as manifestations of the human state rather than medical diseases. There is little acknowledgement that a true disease is likely to rise and fall in incidence. In outlining the North Wales History of Mental Illness project, this paper seeks to provide some evidence that psychiatric diseases do rise and fall in incidence, along with evidence as to how such ideas are received by other historians of psychiatry and by biological psychiatrists. Keywords Disease, historical epidemiology, medical progress, post-partum psychoses, schizophrenia The twenty-fifth anniversary of the History of Psychiatry provides a wonderful opportunity to celebrate its editor who has had a huge influence on all aspects of the history outlined below.
    [Show full text]
  • Deinstitutionalization: Its Impact on Community Mental Health Centers and the Seriously Mentally Ill Stephen P
    Page 40 Deinstitutionalization: Its Impact on Community Mental Health Centers and the Seriously Mentally Ill Stephen P. Kliewer Melissa McNally Robyn L. Trippany Walden University Abstract Deinstitutionalization has had a significant impact on the mental health system, including the client, the agency, and the counselor. For clients with serious mental illness, learning to live in a community setting poses challenges that are often difficult to overcome. Community mental health agencies must respond to these specific needs, thus requiring a shift in how services are delivered and how mental health counselors need to be trained. The focus of this article is to explore the dynamics and challenges specific to deinstitution- alization, discuss implications for counselors, and identify solutions to respond to the identified challenges and resulting needs. State run psychiatric hospitals have traditionally been the primary component in the treatment of people with severe and persistent mental illness. For many years, individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) were kept out of the community setting. This isolation occurred for many reasons: a) the attitude of the public about people with mental illness, b) a belief that the mentally ill could only be helped in such settings, and c) a lack of resources at the community level (Patrick, Smith, Schleifer, Morris & McClennon, 2006). However, the institutional approach was not without its problems. A primary problem was the absence of hope and expecta- tion that patients would recover (Patrick, et al., 2006). In short, institutions seemed to become warehouses where mentally ill were kept for long periods of time with little expectation of improvement.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Work 618 Systems of Recovery from Mental Illness in Adults
    Social Work 618 Systems of Recovery From Mental Illness in Adults 3 Units Instructor: Marco Formigoni, LCSW Course Day: E-Mail: [email protected] Monday Office Hours: By appointment Course Location: VAC I. COURSE PREREQUISITES This advanced level practice course is only open to Mental Health Concentrations students who are working, in their current field placement, with adult clients who have been diagnosed with mental illnesses. II. CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION This advanced mental health practice course focuses on the multi-level impact of mental illness on adults and families. Evidence-based interventions promoting increased quality of life and stability are emphasized. III. COURSE DESCRIPTION This advanced-level elective course offers students the opportunity to learn about effective, leading -edge social work approaches to providing humane care for persons with mental illness, especially those clients with concomitant substance abuse, developmental disabilities and severe socioeconomic disadvantage who are commonly considered “difficult” to treat. The course offers students a comprehensive approach to social work practice with this population which includes outreach, clinical assessment; treatment planning that includes strengths orientation with client’s environment and collaboration with other systems, advocacy and program development as well as management. The contribution of discrimination and social inequalities to clients’ difficulties is considered throughout the course, including discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, disability and diagnosis. Many different understandings related to the nature of the problem of severe mental illness are included and the required readings draw from various theoretical approaches to treatment, ranging from psychodynamic to ecological. The perspective of the course is client-centered in that the emphasis is on understanding the persons who have a severe mental illness, their strengths and the processes associated with acquiring care.
    [Show full text]
  • What the Consumer Movement Says About Recovery
    What the consumer movement says about recovery By Allan Pinches, Consumer Consultant in Mental Health, Bachelor of Arts in Community Development (VU) © Copyright 2004 - 2014 The rise of recovery-oriented systems of treatment and support in the mental health field is widely acknowledged as a major achievement for the consumer-movement. However, it was an achievement that was won with the help of a widely diverse range of supporters from many parts of the community with varying interests in mental health services. The partnerships which contributed to the development of the recovery paradigm in mental health services are still a vital resource in the field. Long and determined efforts by consumer advocates to highlight the need for sweeping reforms of the mental health system, on the grounds of human rights, poor quality of services, and ineffective or even harmful treatment methods, were joined by many campaigners in the community over decades – including, many conscientious nurses, social workers, family/ carers, clergy, some journalists, writers, opposition politicians, community workers and action groups, human rights lawyers, unions, academics, a few reformist psychiatrists, and others. This paper starts with an introduction about the role of the consumer movement in recovery-oriented mental health service delivery. Secondly, there is a Timeline of Recovery which traces a historical selection of key consumer related developments as the recovery model has taken shape between the 1960s and the present day. Thirdly the paper continues
    [Show full text]
  • A Pervasive Mental Model of Addiction Recovery and Its Implications for Sustaining Change Erin Stringfellow Washington University in St
    Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Spring 5-15-2019 “You Have to Want It”: A Pervasive Mental Model of Addiction Recovery and Its Implications for Sustaining Change Erin Stringfellow Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the Psychiatric and Mental Health Commons Recommended Citation Stringfellow, Erin, "“You Have to Want It”: A Pervasive Mental Model of Addiction Recovery and Its Implications for Sustaining Change" (2019). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1760. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1760 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Brown School Dissertation Examination Committee: Renee M. Cunningham-Williams, Chair Patrick Fowler Sarah Gehlert Lee Hoffer Peter S. Hovmand Carrie Pettus-Davis Bradley Stoner “You Have to Want It”: A Pervasive Mental Model of Addiction Recovery and Its Implications for Sustaining Change by Erin J. Stringfellow A dissertation presented to The Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
    [Show full text]
  • Spiritual and Religious Issues in Psychotherapy with Schizophrenia: Cultural Implications and Implementation
    Religions 2012, 3, 82–98; doi:10.3390/rel3010082 OPEN ACCESS religions ISSN 2077-1444 www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Review Spiritual and Religious Issues in Psychotherapy with Schizophrenia: Cultural Implications and Implementation Lauren Mizock *, Uma Chandrika Millner and Zlatka Russinova Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 940 Commonwealth Avenue West, Boston, MA 02215, USA; E-Mails: [email protected] (U.C.M.); [email protected] (Z.R.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +1-617-353-3549; Fax: +1-617-353-7700. Received: 18 February 2012; in revised form: 6 March 2012 / Accepted: 6 March 2012 / Published: 12 March 2012 Abstract: The topics of spirituality and psychotherapy have often been controversial in the literature on schizophrenia treatment. However, current research indicates many potential benefits of integrating issues of religion and spirituality into psychotherapy for individuals with schizophrenia. In this paper, implications are presented for incorporating spiritual and religious issues in psychotherapy for individuals with schizophrenia. A background on the integration of spirituality into the practice of psychotherapy is discussed. The literature on spiritually-oriented psychotherapy for schizophrenia is provided. Clinical implications are offered with specific attention to issues of religious delusions and cultural considerations. Lastly, steps for implementing spiritually-oriented psychotherapy for individuals with schizophrenia are delineated to assist providers in carrying out spiritually sensitive care. Keywords: religion; spirituality; schizophrenia; psychotherapy; culture; rehabilitation; recovery; religious delusions 1. Introduction The topics of spirituality and psychotherapy have often been controversial in the literature on schizophrenia treatment [1,2]. Some practitioners have argued that religion had no space in the Religions 2012, 3 83 psychotherapy setting given a need to be grounded in science.
    [Show full text]
  • Abolishing the Concept of Mental Illness
    ABOLISHING THE CONCEPT OF MENTAL ILLNESS In Abolishing the Concept of Mental Illness: Rethinking the Nature of Our Woes, Richard Hallam takes aim at the very concept of mental illness, and explores new ways of thinking about and responding to psychological distress. Though the concept of mental illness has infiltrated everyday language, academic research, and public policy-making, there is very little evidence that woes are caused by somatic dysfunction. This timely book rebuts arguments put forward to defend the illness myth and traces historical sources of the mind/body debate. The author presents a balanced overview of the past utility and current disadvantages of employing a medical illness metaphor against the backdrop of current UK clinical practice. Insightful and easy to read, Abolishing the Concept of Mental Illness will appeal to all professionals and academics working in clinical psychology, as well as psychotherapists and other mental health practitioners. Richard Hallam worked as a clinical psychologist, researcher, and lecturer until 2006, mainly in the National Health Service and at University College London and the University of East London. Since then he has worked independently as a writer, researcher, and therapist. ABOLISHING THE CONCEPT OF MENTAL ILLNESS Rethinking the Nature of Our Woes Richard Hallam First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Richard Hallam The right of Richard Hallam to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
    [Show full text]
  • This Is the Title of My Thesis
    A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TALK ABOUT SERVICE USERS IN EARLY INTERVENTION IN PSYCHOSIS TEAMS Ellen Duff Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology (D. Clin. Psychol.) The University of Leeds Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences School of Medicine October 2013 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2013 The University of Leeds and Ellen Duff The right of Ellen Duff to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. 2 Acknowledgements Biggest thanks go to the EIP staff who agreed to participate in this study – to have your words recorded and analyzed was doubtless a daunting prospect and I thank you for trusting me through this process. My supervisors, Carol, Anjula and Alex - I thank you for unswerving support, faith and optimism ... and to Carol in particular for coffee, biscuits and chats about cats. My family and friends have also been a constant source of support and given me what I needed just when I needed it – a motivational talk from Justine when I doubted myself, a stint of cat-sitting from Jane when I needed a holiday, a welcome home from my parents when I lacked the energy to take care of myself.
    [Show full text]
  • Spiritual Perspectives, Spiritual Care, and Recovery-Oriented Practice in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses" (2018)
    University of Texas at Tyler Scholar Works at UT Tyler Nursing Theses and Dissertations School of Nursing Spring 4-27-2018 Spiritual Perspectives, Spiritual Care, and Recovery- Oriented Practice in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses Melissa Neathery University of Texas at Tyler Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uttyler.edu/nursing_grad Part of the Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing Commons Recommended Citation Neathery, Melissa, "Spiritual Perspectives, Spiritual Care, and Recovery-Oriented Practice in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses" (2018). Nursing Theses and Dissertations. Paper 82. http://hdl.handle.net/10950/846 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Nursing at Scholar Works at UT Tyler. It has been accepted for inclusion in Nursing Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Works at UT Tyler. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES, SPIRITUAL CARE, AND RECOVERY-ORIENTED PRACTICE IN PSYCHIATRIC MENTAL HEALTH NURSES by MELISSA NEATHERY A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Nursing Susan Yarbrough, PhD., R.N., Committee Chair College of Nursing and Health Sciences The University of Texas at Tyler April 9, 2018 The University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, Texas This is to certify that the Doctoral Dissertation of MELISSA NEATHERY has been approved for the dissertation requirement on April 9, 2018 for the Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing degree Approvals: ____________________________________ Dissertation Chair: Susan Yarbrough, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Member: Zhaomin, He, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Member: Belinda Deal, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Member: Elizabeth Johnston Taylor, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Mark Ragins, M.D
    Recovery: Changing From A Medical Model To A Psychosocial Rehabilitation Mode by Mark Ragins, M.D. Ever since Kraeplin defined schizophrenia, or dementia praecox, 100 vears ago, as a chronic, unremitting, gradually deteriorating condition, it has been difficult to talk credibly about or work towards recovery with severe mental illness. The relationship between treatment professionals, patients and their families has frequently been frustrating, unsatisfying, and noncollaborative often to the point of coercion. Clients and families are often waiting for their illnesses to go away, or be cured, in order to go on with their lives and are angry at professionals for not helping them, or doing anything for them, since their lives are not improving at all. At present, most people on all sides have abandoned the process entirely out of despair. Very few psychiatrists treat the chronically mentally ill and increasing numbers of patients are described as "treatment resistant" and families are "burned out" and disengaged. The result is the abandonment, neglect and deterioration we see all around us. All this hopelessness exists despite clear evidence of the growing efficacy of our treatments, and more benign outcomes than traditionally thought. I would argue that the problem may be as much in our conceptual model of treatment and recovery as in the inherent nature of the conditions. Schizophrenics in third world countries are regularly reported to have better outcomes than here. Also people with schizophrenia who explain their conditions spiritually, instead of medically, apparently fare better. The medical model tends to define recovery in negative terms. Symptoms and complaints need to be eliminated.
    [Show full text]
  • The Recovery Model Handouts and Reference Materials by Mark
    The Recovery Model Handouts and Reference Materials By Mark Ragins, MD I have enclosed in this packet several short documents that highlight various aspects of recovery based transformation: 1) The Four Stages of Recovery 2) Person Centered vs. Illness Centered 3) We Treat Chronic Illnesses, Don’t We? 4) Milestones of Recovery Scale If you would like more detail, I have written several longer documents that contain almost all of the details and stories in my presentations. You can find these on the MHA Village website at www.village-isa.org under the dessert section of the menu labeled Village Writings… 1) A Road to Recovery 2) A Guide to Mental Health Transformation on a Personal Level 3) Proposition 63 Begins: The Mental Health Services Act Implementation Toolbox As you will see, the website contains my writings over a number of years. I try to add new articles as I write them. For more information on the MHA Village, peruse the website! You can also check out www.mhala.org. I can be reached through MHA’s Training and Consultation Department if you contact Sara Ford at (562) 437-6717 x314 or [email protected]. The MHA Village provides trainings and consulta tions based on psychosocial rehabilitation. Trainings focus on the recovery model and include topics such as employment, community integration, psychiatric care, dual diagnosis, housing, intensive service coordination, transition age youth, outcomes, recovery-oriented leadership as well as a menu of consultation services focusing on transformation based on the Mental Health Services Act. MHA Village Integrated Service Agency a program of the National Mental Health Association of Greater Los Angeles 456 Elm Avenue Long Beach, CA 90802 phone (562) 437-6717 fax (562) 436-1928 1 The Four Stages of Recovery By Mark Ragins, MD Recovery is the normal adaptational process that follows destruction just like grief is the normal adaptational process that follows loss.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology with an Epilogue on Psychiatry and the Mind-Body Relation
    E.R. Wallace, J. Gach (Eds.) History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology With an Epilogue on Psychiatry and the Mind-Body Relation ▶ Co-editor Edwin Wallace is a well known historian of psychiatry and medical psychology ▶ Contributors are noted scholars in the areas covered ▶ There are no recent books covering as long a time span ▶ The first comprehensive English-language reference on the history of psychiatry since 1966 The first English-language comprehensive reference on the history of psychiatry since 1966. The Romans knew that Nero was insane. Shakespeare’s Macbeth asked his doctor to treat "a mind diseased." The people of the European Enlightenment era pondered whether the asylum inmates were mad or simply bad. As a discipline, psychiatry has always walked a fine if not easily defined line between social and biological science. 2008, XLIX, 862 p. 1 illus. History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology traces this evolution in its social, political, and philosophical contexts, charting the rise of psychology as a legitimate field of scientific pursuit, and of psychiatry as a medical specialty. An interdisciplinary team of Printed book noted historians (including Sander Gilman, Dora Weiner, Hannah Decker, and the recently deceased dean of American psychiatric history, George Mora) has distilled centuries Hardcover of history—protracted debates, false starts, and missteps included—resulting in an ▶ 279,99 € | £249.99 | $349.99 engaging and inspiring narrative of history and methodology in the making. Highlights ▶ *299,59 € (D) | 307,99
    [Show full text]