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David
have you come across the "...For Beginners" books by Writers and Readers
Publishing in the US, and a similar series that used to use the same
title published by Icon Press in the UK with different authors. Icon
Press have now re-issued their books in a series called
"Introducing...".
Both series of books use a comic-book format - usually much more
accessible and critical than traditional text based books (i.e
'textbooks') and are therefore usually 'critical' through their format
as well as content.
I think 'Foucault for Beginners' by Lydia Alix Fillingham (ISBN
086316160X) would be good, but also possibly bits of 'Postmodernism for
Beginners' by Jim Powell (ISBN 08316188X), and maybe bits of 'Chomsky
for Beginners' too!?
"Psychiatry for Beginners" by Brider and Castneda (ISBN 0863161669) is
now out of print - but is a good critical read. It includes the Wizard
of Oz (!), and is critical of diagnoses and medical treatment.
In the Icon Press books, the authors take a slightly different take on
some of the issues - but still worth a look. I think they do their own
comic book verisons of Foucault, Chomsky and possibly postmodernism, but
I'm not sure if they did psychiatry or anti-psychiatry.
Of course there may be other books using a comic-book approach that
might be accessible while still dealing with important issues. What
about using films too?
Best wishes
Kevin Baker
________________________________
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List on behalf of David
Fryer
Sent: Tue 09-Jan-07 2:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] critical reading on everyday psychiatry?
Dear Craig,
Thanks for reopening this issue.
Interestingly, Marie Jahoda - who I regard as an early critical
community psychologist - set up the Brunel Psychology undergraduate
course as a sandwich course in which students worked in factories,
offices etc for a year whilst critically reflecting on the mutual
implications of work life for academic life and vice versa and I would
like to see something similar going on today (though these days
experience may need to be more often in call centres and part time
service sector jobs rather than in factories at least in this part of
the world)
However the people interested in potential books I am talking about are
not Uni students but 'users' of psychiatric services who are also
community activists using arts to tackle stigma, stereotypes, injustice,
oppression in relation to mental health. They are, despite their
artivism, subject to the attentions of psychiatrists, community
psychiatric nurses, psychiatric social workers etc and are 'given'
diagnoses, treatments, discursively positioned and generally 'talked
at'. When they are told they are suffering from schizophrenia, bi-polar
disorder, have a personality disorder etc. in need of treatment they
want to know in plain language what this means to the person doing the
talking and what it means in terms of the potential disempowerment of
the person doing the hearing. Engels may be key critical reading but may
not be priority reading if being faced by being sectioned? However the
social justice activism side of the project means that it is also
important to engage critically with the psy-complex and its discourses .
. . and so many good books which do that are pretty inaccessible to
those are not professional readers (Rose or Foucault would be hard going
for some in the group)
So we want to find something to read which helps translate and decode
psy-professionals' talk (and their doing by talking) but also which
problemetises and deconstructs it in an accessible way. I have not come
across anything yet . . . but am still hopeful though also perhaps
increasingly wondering if it is yet to be written?
David
David Fryer
University of Stirling
FK9 4LA
Scotland
+44 (0) 1786 467650 (tel)
+44 (0) 1786 467641 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Newnes
Sent: 09 January 2007 1:29 pm
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: critical reading on everyday psychiatry?
I find myself agitated by the suggestions to David about
potential books. They are the usual suapects - even our own (This is
madness and This is madness too) are edited by Clinical Psychologists
tho many chapters are by survivors and others. How about starting with
Engels, as a far more insightful read? Anyone not paid by the psych
industry can question it and point out its myriad flaws - indeed David
himself blasted the non link between so called cognitions, biochemistry
and conduct in Forum last year. Perhaps the students could work in a
factory for a year instead.
Craig
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 3.29PM
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] critical reading on everyday
psychiatry?
David,
How about 'Users and Abusers of Psychiatry' (2000) by Rowe and
Johnstone. Very readable, not too technical and critical to some extent
but might have a bit too much of a psychotherapeutic focus and is not as
critical as it could be,
Mike
Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi David,
You could try Madness Explained by Richard P Bentall (
penguin paperback; 2nd edition 2004) ? It doesn't meet all your
requirements in that it doesn't look at all diagnostic categories, only
psychosis/ schizophrenia, but it does give a very thorough explanation
of the DSM criteria, and why the medical model categories are
inappropriate. Written by a cognitive psychologist but informed by wider
considerations of social justice - the author makes personal connections
as he had a brother who was diagnosed as psychotic. It's technical, long
but readable.
Regarding anxiety and depression, you could try Goldberg
and Goodyear (2005) Origins and Course of Common Mental Disorders.
Routledge. Again, this challenges medical model thinking but probably
not as socially critical as you would want.
Annie
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Fryer
Sent: 02 January 2007 15:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: critical reading on everyday psychiatry?
Happy New Year
Can anyone recommend a good book for the following
purposes, please?
Some of us who are members of an expressive arts mental
health group in Scotland, plan to meet in the new year in a 'book group'
to read, think about and critically discuss the diagnoses some of us
have been given by psychiatrists and the broader context of psychiatry
and psy-professions. We are looking for recommendations of a book or
books to use. We have three requirements of such a book:
First, we do need a book which really clearly explicates
the so-called symptoms, diagnostic categories, common pharmaceutical and
other interventions etc. which are actually deployed by psychiatrists
and others.
Secondly, we also need a book written within a critical
frame of reference, which does itself not subscribe to the medical model
of mental ill-health but is informed by wider societal and justice
considerations.
Thirdly, we need a book which will not disable us
through use of a lot of jargon, very complicated sentence structure etc.
Does anyone know of an accessible book about mental
illness which gets to grip with everyday diagnoses and treatments made
in the UK whilst supporting and promoting ideologically critical
thinking?
The closest we have got so far is: Key Concepts in
Mental Health (Key Concepts)
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Key-Concepts-Mental-Health/dp/1412907772/sr=1-2
/qid=1167750883/ref=sr_1_2/202-2793199-8718202?ie=UTF8&s=books> by
David Pilgrim (Paperback - Feb 2005). This is really very interesting
but a little more general than we want.
David Heeley and Mary Boyle have already been
recommended.
Can anyone suggest any other book we might consider?
David
David Fryer
University of Stirling
FK9 4LA
Scotland
+44 (0) 1786 467650 (tel)
+44 (0) 1786 467641 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
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