Hello David, and everyone who's interested in this track,
I have felt cautious about recommending something but here goes.
I LOVE the way Lauren Slater writes, and I would recommend her chapter, 'On
Being Sane in Insane Places: Experimenting with Psychiatric Diagnosis'. This
is in her book, 'Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of
the Twentieth Century'. In this chapter, she does a version of David
Rosenhan's experiment from the 1970s, and sizes up the response.
Slater has been slated for her book and the lies she has told in it. But I
still think this would give your group a lot to talk about, whether you
think she's outrageous or not.
Your group sounds interesting too - maybe you could let us know what you
finally decide on and how it goes, David.
Best wishes
Penny
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Burton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 6:30 PM
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] critical reading on everyday psychiatry?
>A good series - I don't suppose they'll meet the needs of the original
>request, but the 2 original ones by Mexican cartoonist Rius were Cuba for
>Beginners and Marx for Beginners - still worth reading if you can find
>them.
>
>
>
> Baker Kevin wrote:
>> 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]
>> --
>> The University of Stirling is a university established
>> in Scotland by charter at Stirling, FK9 4LA. Privileged/Confidential
>> Information may be contained in this message. If you are not the
>> addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the
>> message to such person), you may not disclose, copy or deliver this
>> message to anyone and any action taken or omitted to be taken in
>> reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. In such case, you
>> should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender by reply email.
>> Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to
>> Internet email for messages of this kind.
>> ___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK -
>> The discussion list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe
>> or to change your details visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML For any problems
>> or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on
>> [log in to unmask]
>> ___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK -
>> The discussion list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe
>> or to change your details visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML For any problems
>> or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>> Send instant messages to your online friends
>> http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com ___________________________________
>> COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the
>> UK. To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML For any problems
>> or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on
>> [log in to unmask]
>> ___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The
>> discussion list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to
>> change your details visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML For any problems
>> or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> The University of Stirling is a university established in Scotland by
>> charter at Stirling, FK9 4LA. Privileged/Confidential Information may be
>> contained in this message. If you are not the addressee indicated in
>> this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such
>> person), you may not disclose, copy or deliver this message to anyone
>> and any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is
>> prohibited and may be unlawful. In such case, you should destroy this
>> message and kindly notify the sender by reply email. Please advise
>> immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for
>> messages of this kind.
>>
>> ___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion
>> list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to change
>> your details visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML For any problems
>> or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>> ___________________________________
>> COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the
>> UK.
>> To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML
>> For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> **********************************************************************
>> This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
>> intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they
>> are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify
>> the system security manager ([log in to unmask]).
>>
>> This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by
>> MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses and inappropriate
>> content.
>> **********************************************************************
>>
>> ___________________________________
>> COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the
>> UK.
>> To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML
>> For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.8/621 - Release Date: 09/01/07
> 13:37
>
> ___________________________________
> COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML
> For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on
> [log in to unmask]
___________________________________
COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML
For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on [log in to unmask]
|