To view prices and purchase online, please login or create an account now.



The Reality of Mental Illness

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title The Reality of Mental Illness
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Martin Roth
By (author) Jerome Kroll
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:140
Dimensions(mm): Height 229,Width 152
ISBN/Barcode 9780521337618
ClassificationsDewey:616.89 616.89
Audience
Tertiary Education (US: College)
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 25 July 1986
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

This book is psychiatry's reply to the diverse group of antipsychiatrists, including Laing, Foucault, Goffman, Szasz and Bassaglia, that has made fashionable the view that mental illness is merely socially deviant behaviour and that psychiatrists are agents of the capitalist society seeking to repress such behaviour. It establishes, by the use of evidence from historical and transcultural studies, that mental illness has been recognised in all cultures since the beginning of history and goes on to explore the philosophical and medical basis for psychiatry's diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. Finally, it tackles two issues where psychiatry has recently been seen as at odds with the values prevailing in society: involuntary hospitalization and the insanity defence. The Reality of Mental Illness does not pretend to offer simple answers to the complex problems it discusses, but will leave the reader with a much greater understanding of psychiatry's aims, practices and problems.