Reviews (3)

Inadequate, Outdated, and Disappointing
Schizophrenia: the Facts gave minimal information about schizophrenia. Despite the publication date, the material is quite dated. Tsuang is in the mainstream of psychiatrists in supporting a biological origin of the disorder. I was disappointed with the brevity of Tsuang's coverage of important and practical matters. It is a book that I would offer to neither consumers nor families. Skip this book. There are far better books written at the level of this one. You will get more bang for the buck purchasing the books under the heading "Customers who bought this book also bought..." or "Customers who bought titles by...also bought titles by these authors...." I'm surprised that Oxford University Press is associated with this inadequate and disappointing book.

An outstanding book for lay readers
Schizophrenia: The Facts is an outstanding book for the lay reader.Unlike many other books on the topic which are complicated by medical and scientific jargon, this book is truly accessible to the non-expert.

"Schizophrenia: The Facts" Fails To Deliver
I was initially captivated by the scope of topics represented in the table of contents and the author, Ming T. Tsuang, is eminently qualified to write on this subject. The book does deliver "The Facts" but fails toprovide supporting documentation for the inquiring reader. Footnotes andendnotes are absent. The bibliography is sparse with 13 entries and citestwo articles by the author. The citations are considerably outdated withthe exception of Hirsch and Weinberger's epic "Schizophrenia." EFuller Torrey is called T E Fuller.The reference to Andreasen's"Broken Mind" should have been supplemented with her later"Schizophrenia: From Mind to Molecule." With a copyright date of1997, I am surprised by a failure to mention Zyprexa and Seroquel. Irecommend that readers pass by this book. There are better written andcomprehensive treatments available. E Fuller Torrey's "SurvivingSchizophrenia" 3rd ed wears its age well and is more lucidly written.Irving Gottesman's "Schizophrenia Genesis" remains the definitivetreatment of the predisposition-stress model. Despite it's expense, I thinkthat Hirsch and Weinberger's "Schizophrenia" is the definitive,scholarly treatment. It is encyclopedic. Mueser and Gingerich's"Coping with Schizophrenia" is packed with practical advice forfamily caregivers. Sophia Vinogradov's "Treating Schizophrenia"is a readable, first class book by a leading researcher. I highly recommendher enjoyable and informative book. Keefe and Harvey's "UnderstandingSchizophrenia" is also an outstanding treatment. Kaplan and Sadock's"Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry" can be profitably studiedby a motivated reader. Tsuang delivers the barest of facts and leaves thedisappointed reader wanting more information. The reader seekinginformation on schizophrenia is better served by these other books. Ifpressed by necessity, check the NIMH publications that are online. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Health/Fitness    3. Medical / Nursing    4. Mental Illness    5. Psychology    6. Psychopathology - General    7. Schizophrenia    8. Clinical psychology    9. Coping with illness    10. Medicine | Consumer Health    11. Psychiatry    12. Self-Help / General   

Reviews (2)

Long time favorite
I read this book when I was about 14 and found it perfect.No great over the moon ending (sorry if that spoils it), but I prefer that to something that comes off Hollywood.The reader has such an understanding not only for Mike, but for his family and others who have to deal closely with those with mental illnesses.Mike grows and so does everyone else.It's a very evolving book that I love still, some 13 years later.

An amazing journey!
This is a beautiful book, a fiction that reads like a case file of childhood schizophrenia and the miraculous human potential to heal. It traces the slow, halting steps of an institutionalized boy's journey from isolation into reality.It is narrated by a young psychotherapist, Pat, fresh out of graduate school and in his first internship, who gradually comes to understand Mike's history, family and illness and who ultimately joins Mike as a friend and guide on the path towards a recovered self-identity.Perhaps because the author, Robert Lane, is himself a psychologist, the book is full of information about childhood mental disorders -- how they might arise and potentially be surmounted.The story moves along each step of Mike's recovery and describes each setback and small triumph of their budding friendship.Lane builds an authentic and compelling bond between these two characters and brings the reader completely into their world.A memorable and moving story. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Case studies    2. Child psychotherapy    3. Residential treatment    4. Schizophrenia in children   

Editorial Review

"Nineteen seventy-four was a bad time to go crazy," reads the gripping first line in this thoroughly unique memoir by Virginia Holman, a frequent contributor to magazines such as Read more

Reviews (37)

Different
This book chronicles the experiences of one family when the mother develops schizophrenia after giving birth to her second child.Unable to convince the mother to get psychiatric help and without the legal means to force her to do say, the family is instead forced to simply stand by as her delusions slowly take over their mother's life, and, in the process, also their own.
A world apart

Heartbreaking and Wonderful
I heard about this book when Virginia Holman was interviewed on the Diane Rehm show. What an amazing
Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Criminals & Outlaws    6. Family relationships    7. General    8. Mothers and daughters    9. Personal Memoirs    10. Schizophrenia    11. Schizophrenics    12. Virginia    13. Women    14. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Subjects:  1. Clinical Psychology    2. Mental Illness    3. Psychology    4. Psychotherapy    5. Relapse    6. Schizophrenia    7. Treatment    8. Psychology & Psychiatry / Clinical Psychology   

Reviews (2)

Honest and painful
I read this book coming from the outlook of being a mom of a schizophrenic 14-year-old daughter.By the time I finished the book, I was sorry I read it.Although it was a brutally frank and honest account, Ms. Moorman not sugar-coating her feelings for her sister and making it into some kind of overcomer's tale with a happy ending, I found myself mired in sadness through the course of the story.There were so few hopeful moments that I found myself wondering why she wrote it in the first place, and how would this book give comfort or hope to other siblings of the mentally ill?
Anyone who has a difficult family member will understand...
This true-story book tells of a woman's experiences in dealing with a sister with bipolar disorder.Throughout her life, her sister's illness has impacted her own life in a variety of ways, and after the mother dies and she is the only one responsible for her sister, the situation intensifies.While on medication, the bipolar sister can function reasonably well, but she goes off meds from time to time and then the sister eventually has a mess to sort out.Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Family relationships    4. General    5. Mental health    6. Moorman, Sally    7. Psychology    8. Schizophrenia    9. Schizophrenics    10. Sisters    11. United States    12. Family    13. Moorman, Margaret   

Subjects:  1. Developmental - Adolescent    2. Medical    3. Mental Illness    4. Neuroscience    5. Psychology    6. Psychoses in adolescence    7. Psychoses in children    8. Schizophrenia    9. Schizophrenia in adolescence    10. Schizophrenia in children    11. Paediatric medicine    12. Psychiatry   

Subjects:  1. Biography/Autobiography    2. Mental Health    3. Mental Illness    4. Psychology    5. Psychotherapy    6. Schizophrenia    7. therapy    8. Psychiatry   

Subjects:  1. General    2. Mental Illness    3. Pathophysiology    4. Physiological Pathology    5. Psychology    6. Reference    7. Schizophrenia    8. Water-Electrolyte Balance    9. Water-electrolyte imbalances    10. physiopathology    11. Clinical psychology    12. Psychiatry   

Subjects:  1. Developmental neurobiology    2. Etiology    3. Medical    4. Medical / Nursing    5. Mental Illness    6. Neuroscience    7. Pathophysiology    8. Psychiatry - General    9. Schizophrenia    10. Medical / Neuroscience    11. Neurology & clinical neurophysiology    12. Neurosciences    13. Psychiatry   

Subjects:  1. Affective disorders    2. Child psychopathology    3. Clinical Psychology    4. Developmental - Lifespan Development    5. Longitudinal studies    6. Psychology    7. Psychopathology - General    8. Risk factors    9. Schizophrenia    10. Psychiatry    11. Psychology & Psychiatry / Clinical Psychology   

Reviews (1)

If there, where was I?
This book is far too technical to have fugue-ing in the index. It doesn't even have confabulation. Sullivan's book, The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry (I gave my copy to my son last year, so I'm not seeing it now) might be a better source for functional definitions of the terms that I should be thinking about when I run my thinking into America's experience in Nam. I was hoping that, looking at descriptions of schizophrenia, I could find some technical description of aggravation, like: try grabbing a machine gun and shooting it straight up in the air ~ it works the same way.Read more

Subjects:  1. Schizophrenia    2. Clinical psychology   

Reviews (2)

Not Impressed
Although I am usually a fan of Dr. Ross's books, I found this books to be a bit redundant. His main focus is on a subtype of schizophrenia that he believes should exist (dissociative), but doesn't. So it's a lot ot theory. There is some information about schizophrenia and it's comparison to Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerlly multiple personality disorder), but that's about it.
Only the trauma model can destroy psychiatry!
I am an author that writes in Spanish and specializes in child abuse and the "model of trauma" of mental disorders, an expression coined by psychiatrist Colin Ross.The importance of doctor Ross' new book on schizophrenia can be understood in the following personal anecdotes.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Diagnosis    2. Dissociative Disorders    3. Mental Illness    4. Psychology    5. Psychopathology - Schizophrenia    6. Schizophrenia    7. Treatment    8. Psychiatry   

Editorial Review

You have to wonder if there's anyone left out there who dares call themselves a Freudian. Little is being written in defense of Freud and his legacy while the critiques, ever more confident and ever more damning, continue to fall from the presses like heavy Vienna snow. Read more

Reviews (12)

Blaming the victim
Edward Dolnick gives a compelling portrayal of the heyday of the "blame the victim" psychotherapy of the 50's and 60's.He starts, of course, with Freud and with psychoanalysis in particular.(Actually, although the jacket description cites "blame the victim", it should include "blame the mother".)
Stinging Indictment of psychoanalysis
This book is an easy-to-read and thoroughly entertaining critique of psychoanalysis attempt to treat schizophrenia and autism through talk therapy. Though largely anedotal, Dolnick presents a strong case that psychoanalysis is speculation cloaked in scientific garb. Instead of utilizing a rigorous method of testing their hypotheses, psychoanalysts seek confirmation and try to fit observable phenomenon into their pre-existing schemata. The audacious arrogance of Freud and his followers made them immune to contrary evidence and resistant to other methods. Moreover, Dolnick suggests that psychoanalysis feeds into the self-aggrandizement of the psychoanalyst: they are the all-knowing interpreter of their patients; they are in the privileged position. With this sort of foundation, it is no wonder psychoanalysts were able to reck havoc on parents of schizophrenic and autistic children. Without any basis in fact but only through the deductions of their own schemata, psychoanalysts condemned parents for causing schizophrenia and autism. Some through willful fraud, others through self-delusionment distorted their own success rate. To admit mistakes, would render their enterprise vulnerable and knock them off the pedestal they place themselves upon. Fascinating demolition of psychoanalysis
The madness in the title more properly should be assigned to the chair behind the couch.That is Dolnick's point: the shrinks themselves were mad.In their madness they blamed the parents for the illness of their children, particularly the mother.How did the schizophrenic get that way?He had a "schizophrenogenic" mother, typically a loveless woman who rejected the child while dominating it psychologically.How about autism?The victim of a "refrigerator mother" who withheld love from the child.The obsessive-compulsive disorder?Ditto, although here the patient was also singled out since the patient knew what he was doing, but just would not change. Read more

Subjects:  1. History    2. Mental Disorders    3. Mental Illness    4. Movements - Psychoanalysis    5. Psychiatric errors    6. Psychoanalysis    7. Psychology    8. Schizophrenia    9. Treatment    10. Clinical psychology    11. Psychiatry    12. Psychoanalysis & psychoanalytical theory    13. Psychology & Psychiatry / General   

Subjects:  1. Crime    2. Mental Illness    3. Psychology    4. Psychopathology - Schizophrenia    5. Schizophrenia    6. Schizophrenic Psychology    7. prevention & control    8. Offenders    9. Psychiatry   

Subjects:  1. Assessment, Testing & Measurement    2. Health/Fitness    3. Influence    4. Mass media    5. Multiple personality    6. Multiple-Personality Disorder    7. Neuropsychology    8. Psychology    9. Psychopathology - General    10. Public opinion    11. Schizophrenia    12. Medicine | Psychiatry & Psychology    13. Neurology & clinical neurophysiology    14. Psychiatry    15. Psychology & Psychiatry / Testing & Measurement   

Reviews (3)

The Interior Life of a Paranoid Schizophrenia
From the beginning I might as well say that I also was once diagnosed as a schizophrenic, even for a few days as a paranoid schizophrenic, and so the subject of this particular book strikes close to my heart, although I must add that I never had the experience of hearing voices. This book is an absolutely realistic recreation of the mind of a person who experiences schizophrenia.I have never come across a book that has done this so effectively.Through Robby's voice the author, Elizabeth Kytle, presents some of the prime features of life with schizophrenia; for example, 1. the extreme sense of social anxiety; 2 the social immaturity; 3. the confusion over sexual identity and fear of sexual contact; 4.the deep and profound, though constantly thwarted, need to belong; 5.the awareness that what you are doing and thinking is somehow extremely inappropriate combined with the need to spend intense energy disguising that inappropriateness; and finally, 6.the establishment of a barricade to protect yourself from other people, which eventually becomes a prison.One of the most effective techniques Elizabeth Kytle uses in this book is to have Robby narrate a portion of his life, and then have another friend, relative, teacher, colleague or employer then narrate a parallel section covering the same period of time, yet reflecting a different perspective on the same events.Research has shown that shizophrenia is caused by a complicated interaction between genetic and environmental influences--40% is probably genetic while the environment contributes the remaining 60%.This book does an excellent job of showing the interaction between these two elements to the point where Robby ended up in a psychiatric hospital with a full fledged case of schizophrenia.Overall, at the end of this book, I was wholly impressed with Robby's courage and ingenuity in facing an extremely destructive mental illness.We are also called to examine our own attitudes towards what those who have serious mental illness can and cannot do.It was clear that Robby, despite the severity of his illness, was a far more capable employee than others who weren't mentally ill.If only employers had been willing to work with his diability, he could have ended his life with some self-respect and dignity.In conclusion, I've read many books on mental illness, particularly in the area of memoir, and this is pretty well the best I've read thus far.

Excellent; heartfelt and honest
I am writing a paper on Paranoid Schizophrenia and found this to be an excellent story.I didn't know a lot about Schizophrenia before I read this book and it helped me to understand the diagnoses and the various hardships that Schizophrenics have to face, both mentally and socially.Much better than any textbook on mental disorders, this story is not only entertaining but educational as well.Highly recommended!

Good true story
This is a thought provoking true story about Mental Illness.. Robby was handsome, charming, bright, friendly and hard working, yet angry,desolate, alone in a crowd. No one could save this wonderful man. Mental Illness isan illness of the brain, just as heart trouble is an illness of the heart. We need to accept it more. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Historical - General    6. Paranoia    7. Paranoid schizophrenics    8. Schizophrenia    9. Specific Groups - Special Needs    10. United States    11. Biography: general    12. Clinical psychology    13. Psychiatry   

Reviews (18)

respect
i just think that this book should be one that everyone reads at some point in their lives (sooner rather than later!). it really gives you something special, something i have very rarely experienced in a book. open the book and open your mind!

The engine of the Sixties! Or, one of 'em.
This book felt to me strangely intimate, and understanding when I first read it.Laing, who was a clinical psychiatrist, presents case studies of people who feel overly self-conscious and self-critical, fearful to be on the street alone, hiding from social contact -- common enough feelings which he treats with supreme empathy, not judgement or haste to reform. He explains in the preface his analysis is based on existenstial thought, yet, he avoids the amoralistic tendencies of this genre of philosophy. His emphasis is more on the process of alienation of self from self, and inner self from outer self, into a "split." He gives analysis of the so-described schizoid and schizophrenic personality, attempts to analyze why a person slips into so-called "psychosis" -- in his analysis a schizophrenic person is forming a logical reaction to an untenable situation.Here he leans on other writers, such as Gregory Bateson's double-bind theory.
An existential approach to the conception of the self
In this valuable study, Dr Laing proposes to examine the way some individuals are very proficient in acquiring a false self in order to adapt to false realities and to give an account of specifically personal forms of depersonalisation and disintegration. It is no small task for the therapist to articulate what the patient's "world" is and his way of being in it in order to outline his psychopathology. The author states that if we look at his actions as signs of a disease, we impose categories of thoughts on the patient in our effort to try to explain his mental state and it isn't easy for the therapist to transpose himself into the patient's strange and alien view of world in order to understand his existential position.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Case studies    2. Existential psychology    3. Existential psychotherapy    4. General    5. Mental Illness    6. Psychology    7. Reference    8. Schizoid personality    9. Schizophrenia    10. Sociology - Social Theory    11. Psychiatry    12. Reference / General   

Subjects:  1. Cooking    2. Cooking / Wine    3. Diet therapy    4. Gluten-free diet    5. Health & Healing - General    6. Milk-free diet    7. Recipes    8. Schizophrenia    9. Specific Ingredients - Dairy    10. Diets & dieting    11. Health & Fitness / Nutrition   

Subjects:  1. General    2. Orthomolecular therapy    3. Popular works    4. Psychology    5. Schizophrenia    6. Treatment    7. therapy   

Subjects:  1. Developmental - Adulthood & Aging    2. Geriatric psychiatry    3. Mental Illness    4. Mental health    5. Movements - Psychoanalysis    6. Older people    7. Psychology    8. Schizophrenia in old age    9. Geriatric medicine    10. Psychiatry