Author:

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published: 2004-09-01

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 9781412832243

In the early 1970s, the preeminence of psychoanalysis in the treatment of mental illness gave way to a number of other approaches. Yet, rather than practicing in cooperation, the different schools--existentialism, psychoanalysis, interpersonalism, behaviorism--each taught its own methods, convinced it was the true psychiatry. As a result, all too frequently, varieties of psychiatry have come and gone, wallowing in a battle of sects rather than progressing toward knowledge. In Psychiatric Movements, Leston Havens posits that psychiatry must adopt a pluralistic stance, for only an inclusive psychiatry can bridge the traditional scientific quest of medicine with a humanistic interest in whole lives, inner states, and relationships with others. If for no other reason, from an ethical standpoint, the patient should get the treatment he needs, not the one treatment the doctor dispenses. This edition includes a new introduction explaining changes in the field during the last thirty years. "This is an excellent book, profound, scholarly, thoughtful, and thought provoking."--Chase P. Kimball, Contemporary Psychology "This book is an intellectual delight, and should be a must' for psychiatry residents."--Israel Zwerling, International Journal of Group Psychotherapy "Students of clinical psychiatry...and practitioners will profit immensely from this book... Teachers of psychiatry should read it to enrich their understanding of what they teach and how it relates to the broader world of psychiatry."--Robert Michels, Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases "[This] is one of the most eloquent monographs of which I am aware concerning pluralism in modern American psychiatry."--Michael H. Ebert, Psychiatry Resident Leston Havens is professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Hospital. He is the author of several books, including A Safe Place: Laying the Groundwork of Psychotherapy and Making Contact: Uses of Language in Psychotherapy. S. Nassir Ghaemi is assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Bipolar Disorder Research Program at Cambridge Hospital. He is the author or editor of several books, including Mood Disorders and The Concepts of Psychiatry.