San Antonio College Library

In this book, Lynn Gamwell and Nancy Tomes explore the historical roots of Americans' understanding of madness today. Drawing on a rich array of sources, the authors interweave the perceptions of medical practitioners, the mentally ill and their families, and journalists, poets, novelists, and artists. As they trace successive ways of explaining madness and treating those judged insane, Gamwell and Tomes vividly depict the political and cultural dimensions...

"Hippocrates Cried offers an eye-witness account of the decline of American psychiatry by an internationally-known neuropsychiatrist. Arguing that patients with mental disorders are no longer receiving the care they need, Taylor details how psychiatrists in the U.S. rely too heavily on the DSM, a diagnostic tool that he shows neglects important conditions or symptoms thus failing to properly identify many patients with mental illness. According to...

Covers major mental disorders, theories, and treatments; delves into major advances and ongoing controversies in the field; and shares the most current research on the subject in varied disciplines, including sociology, ethnic studies, criminal justice, education, and social work'' - back cover.

In the 1970s, a small group of leading psychiatrists met behind closed doors and literally rewrote the book on their profession. Revising and greatly expanding the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM for short), they turned what had been a thin, spiral-bound handbook into a hefty tome. Almost overnight the number of diagnoses exploded. The result was a windfall for the pharmaceutical industry and a massive conflict of interest...

Frances argues that the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders threatens to destroy what is considered normal and that grief, sorrow, stress, disappointment, and other feelings are part of life, not a psychiatric disease. From "the most powerful psychiatrist in America" (New York Times) and "the man who wrote the book on mental illness" (Wired), a deeply fascinating and urgently important critique of the widespread...

Americans want to be humane toward the mentally ill, yet we have always been divided about what is best for them and for society. Now, the foremost historian of the care of the mentally ill compellingly recounts our various attempts to solve this ever-present dilemma. In the first comprehensive one-volume history of the treatment of the mentally ill, Gerald Grob begins with colonial America, when families and local communities accepted responsibility...