This volume consists of critical reviews of the most important works in psychiatry ever published and excerpts from those works. For psychotherapy, more than any other profession, books define the field. Most therapists have a personal list of books that for them have been memorable, perhaps even mutative, in influencing their thinking and clinical practice. But in addition to such individual favorites, choices are made at different times by the larger society and by one's professional group. As a result, a particular book comes to be regarded for some time as the book of the moment, after which it either sinks into oblivion or passes into the respectability of acceptance as an essential part of any reference list. If it does survive for long, though, it will inevitably come to be seen rather differently over time. Starting in 1982, the editors, Drs. Sidney Crown and Hugh Freeman, commissioned respected scholars to contribute commentary on seminal books in the field to a series in the British Journal of Psychiatry called "Books Reconsidered". In most cases, the contributors themselves had known the books over a long period, so that their own personal development as professionals was intimately connected with the works themselves and how they have stood up to time and circumstance. This collection includes all "Books Reconsidered" pieces that were published between the inception of the series in 1982 and the opening months of 1992. The editors have tried to cover as many fields as possible that are relevant to psychiatry as a whole and to its subspecialties. Every mental health professional will find these critiques both interesting and stimulating.

First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.

`Fast becoming a contemporary classic... this book tries both to be critical and engender critical thinking in a number of ways. It offers an overview of a number of theories that address human distress as well as particular forms of "pathology". This book effectively highlights the way that western society has taken "normal"; and "abnormal" emotional states to be factual entities rather than the constructed understandings of human phenomena that they are.... should be on the reading list of every course/module that attends to human distress′ - Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis This practical and accessible critique of the institutions, practices and presuppositions that underlie the study of `psychopathology′ will be invaluable for students and practitioners who are working to understand mental health and distress. The authors - who come from backgrounds in clinical psychology, psychiatric social work, psychoanalysis, psychology teaching and action research - challenge the traditions of the field. They analyze the notion of `psychopathology′ as a conventional term in psychology and psychiatry through the language and institutions that hold it in place; and explore the implications of deconstructive ideas for the theories and practices that sustain clinical treatments; and offer an alternative way of seeing `psychopathology′, with accounts of critical professional work and good practice. Deconstructing Psychopathology is invaluable reading for students, academics and practitioners across a range of disciplines who are working to understand mental health and distress, including clinical and counselling psychology, psychiatry, psychiatric social work, counselling and psychotherapy.

Diagnosing Mental Illness -- The Initial DSMs -- The Path to a Diagnostic Revolution -- The DSM-III -- The DSM-IIIR and DSM-IV -- The DSM-5's Failed Revolution -- The DSM as a Social Creation.

A study of schizophrenia arising from an anthropological investigation in a modern psychiatric hospital.