Must-read for mental health professionals
589058
Very interesting read! I used to work in mental health, and I found it very educational and challenging to the way the mental health system works in America. I think this book is a must-read for anyone who works in mental health! Kudos to the author for being so brave to tell the world her story.
1048920
A great book that gives insight into the patients and staff who work in the mental health field. I brights to life the characters and is a great insight into human suffering and humans ability to learn and grow. A must read!!
1191628
Amazing read, have recommended it to many colleagues in the mental health field.  Wonder stories of children and their survival.
3270636
As an avid reader, I quite enjoyed this well written and engaging memoir.  As a psychotherapist, I very much appreciated the insightful and informative self disclosure of bipolar disorder and alcoholism.  This book is a must read for anyone in the mental health profession.
890086
Drs. Elliott and Smith have taken a complex, heart-rending disorder and explained it in simple language. This insightful treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder speaks to a broad audience. Sufferers of this disorder, the people who love and work with them, and those who treat them will find understanding, guidance, and hope in this book. As a Clinical Psychologist, I emphatically recommend this book to colleagues and patients
2307454
Paul R. McHugh makes more sense out of psychiatry than anyone else.  This book explains how and why psychiatric "fads" that are actually harmful arise due to the misconceptions of the members of the profession itself.  There are lessons here for every discipline about how to go about gathering good data and not putting forth false ideas based on bad assumptions.  An excellent, excellent book!
196883
Brilliant. Thought-provoking. A required read for anyone trying to better understand the complexities of mental illness.
397201
Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. I am a mental health professional and the insight and description of what her life has been like and how she has overcome obstacles is important information for people suffering from mental illness and people treating it.  It truly gave me a new perspective through the eyes of the patient. I have recommended it to many friends and I highly recommend this book!!
4065712
As a psychiatrist, I found this to be a page turner. It provides a rare look inside the clannish, often contradictory world of psychoanalytic training and treatment. Analysis is a highly obtuse and boutique type of treatment that has largely been supplanted by evidenced-based and biological treatments. That being said, it provides the foundation for our current understanding of psychiatry as a way to think about mental health. For those in the mental health world, I highly recommend it. Laypersons may need to consult a secondary source for some of the terms and concepts, but is illuminating nonetheless.
625379
Buy this book for every care-giver, family member, judge, policeman, teacher, Congressman, therapist, citizen affected directly or indirectly by mental illness.
4171925
As a Licenced Therapist, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in, or dealing with Spectrum issues...ADD, Autism, and Anxiety.
Jeff Strong , a percussionist and researcher, invites the reader to learn, explore, and open their minds to a unique and highly effective therapeutic approach to working  with brain functioning and behavior.  I found this book  to be an interesting balance of the writer's personal journey and client case studies.  It is a humanistic read....not dry at all.
This book should be on the shelves of anyone working with, or living with, people dealing with sleep, anxiety, aggression, attention, self-regulation, processing, and/or connection issues.
This work is changing lives.
3896642
Where to even begin.. I came across this book by recommendation in one of my classes and I couldn't be more glad for that. I am finishing up my Masters in Psychology at the University of Missouri St. Louis, so of course any book that deals with mental illness will peak my interest, but this one did WAY more than that. The author, Michael Wellington, will have you in awe simply over how raw and transparent he is about the struggles hes had to overcome with his fight against bipolar. He gives phenomenal insight, using personal stories, into the bizarre ways the mind can work if someone with Bipolar Type I goes undiagnosed/doesn't take their medication. I would go a step further and recommend this not only to loved ones who know someone with Bipolar Type I, but also to those who suffer from the common mental illness. The book allows those individuals to realize that others suffering have "flown off the handle" and with the 14 clubs, it's never too late to get back on track. I am hoping that the author writes a sequel, maybe with a personal stories behind how each of the 14 clubs has helped him?! Either way, the author Michael Wellington did a phenomenal job and gets 5 stars from this soon-to-be psychologist!
926642
"A truly valuable contribution to the neuroscience and mental health research literature. It is a formidable task to cogently explain underlying mechanisms of brain function and the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders; however Dr. Pliszka's book delivers in being both replete with citations while being written in a very engaging style. His articulate explanation of the role of catecholamines in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is just one of many noteworthy examples. This book should be a required psychopathology text for all mental health clinicians-in-training."--David R. DeLorenzo, PhD, Private Practice
4615892
This is the best book I've read in the field.  Accessible and usable by people including outside his profession.  It covers the science and research as well as the more general work.  He does not try to simplify, this is a very complex issue.  I appreciate the examples.  Psychotropic drugs have a place, but it is cruelty to reduce psychological agony to an intellectual word and throw a pill at it.  Damage upon damage.  He explains AND provides  very practical ways to help, at many levels.  EXCELLENT, thank you for writing this book!
1254758
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"On the surface, this book demonstrates the nature of my work as a psychiatrist in a wide variety of settings , but mostly in the psychiatric emergency room at SFGH [San Francisco General Hospital].  It shows the kind of tasks given to me, what I do, how I talk to patients, how I think, and how I make decisions that can best be described as knotty, enigmatic, and almost never routine.  When all is said and done, society is paying me to exercise my best professional judgement in trying to solve seemingly insoluble problems.  My decisions are made in a financially deprived and pressurized environment, often with incomplete data, and the tasks are rife with ethical dilemmas.  Though I am...obliged to be an able and compassionate colleague, supervisor, teacher, and practitioner, I mostly get paid to make good decisions as a proxy for society as a whole...

As you read this book, you will no doubt see the setting of psych emergency for what it can be: loud, chaotic, smelly, messy, and dangerous, among other things.  And you will sense the tension [or stress!!] inherent in the work.  But you will sense the redeeming essence of the work: the moment-to-moment relationship between doctor and patient...

While [this] book is part memoir, part primer, and part commentary, what I am most interested in is documenting my experiences and those of my patients...This book is intended to humanize psychiatrists, other metal health [workers], patients, and their loved ones."

The above comes from the preface of this intriguing book by Paul Linde.  Linde Is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.  He is also an author.

The fact is what most people know about the psychiatric emergency room (ER) is that they don't what to be there.  This book details that there is quite a bit more to "psych emergency."

This is a gripping and, at times, unsettling account of an ER psychiatrist.  It is VERY reality-based and illustrates the complexities of the job.  In each chapter, Linde plays a slightly different role.  (That is, this job is definitely not routine!!)

While Linde's own experiences practising psychiatry make for an interesting read, for me, it's the descriptions of his patients that make this book truly compelling.

People from all different backgrounds pass through the psych ER.  There are people such as addicts, trauma survivors, psychotics, and many high-functioning people who are simply "having one of the worst days of their lives."

Linde also gives some historical, legal, theoretical, ethical, moral pharmacological, and anatomical information, where appropriate.

Finally, one thing becomes clear as you read this book.  Linde is a rare breed of doctor, that is, a compassionate doctor.

In conclusion, this is a mesmerizing account of the life of an ER psychiatrist.  This book will open your eyes to the important work these people do!!!

(first published 2010;  acknowledgements;  preface;  10 chapters;  epilogue;  main narrative 235 pages;  notes;  references)

<<Stephen Pletko, London, Ontario, Canada>>

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4244624
A wonderful book! I have an MA in Psychology (and a PhD in an unrelated field) and have been working in emergency psychiatric evaluations for two years now. This is the one most helpful book that I have found on the question: How do I talk to a person for one hour and know what's going on with them psychiatrically?

What I like about it:

a) It guides you through the phases of an interview: opening; developing rapport; finding out the client's/patient's chief concern; enquiring about necessary background information, such as psychiatric, social, medical history; current mental status; closure. In what order to cover these topics, which questions to ask, how to ask them, how to pace the interview.

b) It fills you in on the main diagnostic signs and symptoms of the major psychiatric disorders. (If you know them already, it is a great refresher.)

c) There is a chapter about how to write the diagnosis, such as "diagnostic hierarchies" in case of more than one applicable diagnosis or when there is a number of possible diagnoses you are not sure about. [This will also help you read other people's diagnosis better.] Then a chapter about recommendations and prognoses.

d) Two chapters are about dealing with resistance and in other ways difficult clients.

e) It is written for a student who learns to do psychiatric interviewing. [The title, "The first interview" is indeed a double entendre, referring to the first interview of a patient/client *and* to your, the reader's, first interview(s).]  Thus, it talks about the interviewer's problem with himself/herself, one's own insecurities, feelings, shame, and the techniques available to manage the interviewing relationship itself (such as, e.g., keeping boundaries without appearing callous).

The book ends with a list of the most important DSM-IV diagnostic criteria, a sample interview, and a sample written report. It has an annotated bibliography (i.e. a list of books with comments that the author recommends for further reading) and and index.

The best I saved for last: This author can write well! It is obvious that he likes his students (in this case you, the reader) and his patients. The author has humor that is never denigrating. This attitude is contageous, it warmed my heart and helped me like my patients. Thus, the book is a pleasure to read. Never dry. In my case, the question was not if I *had* to read the next chapter, but *when* I would have the time to do so. And all this not in a book about feel-good, "it's good that we talked about it" psychotherapy, but in a book covering a chapter in the field of "hard core" psychiatry.

Enjoy!
4135651
Mr. Buxbaum offers a unique opportunity to the professional mental health practitioner, to families/individuals impacted by Schizophrenia, Bi Polar or Schizoaffective disorders, Disassociative disorders or other people seriously impacted by an atypical brain by inviting the reader to join him in "dialogue" with his main character(the caretaker of all parts of his brain/beings) in wading through the complex multipartite operations this character uses to maneuver his world. Mr. Buxbaum gifts us in Book One by carefully introducing the reader to a multitude of themes experienced by those impacted by these disorders & also by span of years, an intro to the confusing historical/contemporary diagnostic criteria/treatment of those experiencing Schizoaffective disorders & more.(themes of anogsonosia, employment/relationship challenges, hallucinations , substance issues, religious themes , the creative mind,cultural issues, genetics, trauma, environmental issues, generativity) Buxbaum pulls his reader through his character's sometimes nightmarish visions/sometimes elated visions with humor moving the reader to understand how difficult acceptance, diagnosis,treatment of this disorder is. He offers hope. He delivers this story with a wonderful flair and delightful revival of rarely used words. Questions of how does anyone ever see anything clearly to navigate this world lead my thoughts as the rapid explosion of thoughts of this main character are revealed. This is an excellent read. I highly recommend it.