Liberatory Psychiatry: Philosophy, Politics and Mental Health

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 4/24/2008
EAN 9780521689816, ISBN10: 0521689813

Paperback, 306 pages, 24.6 x 17.5 x 1.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

Psychiatry can help free persons from social, physical and psychological oppression, and it can assist persons to lead free self-directed lives. And, because social realities impact on mental well-being, psychiatry has a critical role to play in social struggles that further liberation. These are the basic foundations of liberatory psychiatry. In recent years, dramatic transformations in social and political structures worldwide have increased the problems of domination, alienation, consumerism, class, gender, religion, race and ethnicity. Confronting the psychological impact of these changes, and exploring new ideas to help develop the liberatory potential of psychiatry, this book should be read by mental health practitioners from the widest range of disciplines and those interested in social theory and political science.

Introduction. Carl I. Cohen and Sami B. Timimi
1. Working towards a liberatory psychiatry? Radicalizing the science of human psychology and behaviour Carl I. Cohen
2. Power, freedom and mental health
a postpsychiatry perspective Philip Thomas and Pat Bracken
3. Challenging risk
a critique of defensive practice Duncan Double
4. Democracy in psychiatry
or why psychiatry needs a new constitution Bradley Lewis
5. German critical psychology as emancipatory psychology Charles W. Tolman
6. Psychopolitical validity in the helping professions
applications to research, interventions, case conceptualization and therapy Isaac Prilleltensky, Ora Prilleltensky and Courte W. Voorhees
7. Class exploitation and psychiatric disorders
from status syndrome to capitalist syndrome Carles Muntaner, Haejoo Chung, Carme Borrell and Joan Benach
8. Ecological. Individual. Ecological? Moving public health psychiatry into a new era Kwame McKenzie
9. Children's mental health and the global market
an ecological analysis Sami B. Timimi
10. Postcolonial psychiatry
the Empire strikes back? Or, the untapped promise of multiculturalism Begum Maitra
11. A new psychiatry for a new world
postcolonialism, postmodernism, and the integration of premodern thought into psychiatry Amjad Hindi, Ramotse Saunders and Ipsit Vahia
12. Neoliberalism and biopsychiatry
a marriage of convenience Joanna Moncrieff
13. Psychoanalysis and social change
the Latin American experience Astrid Rusquellas
14. A new psychiatry? Carl I. Cohen, Sami B. Timimi and Kenneth S. Thompson.

'… melange of ideas and sources … fresh and stimulating … The gap between patients' neurotransmitters and their human stories brings a diverse group of authors together here to show the limits of science - not to bash it - and the importance of meaningful narratives of human experience. … The important theme of this stimulating work is both obvious and unappreciated. Over the eons and throughout the world, the human brain has evolved as an entity, relatively unified, while our narratives have remained, or become, amazingly diverse.' PsycCritiques

'Many of the issues which the papers raise … are of vital concern to psychiatry … Such issues are also important for those in the helping professions generally.' Journal of Psychosomatic Research

'This book is not about consensus and answers; it is about throwing down the gauntlet and kickstarting debate. It is the collective voice of mental health professionals, faced with dilemmas and responsibilities, who challenge their own practice, with sensitivity, sincerity and above all humanism. This reviewer thoroughly recommends it.' Psychological Medicine