CARING FOR THE MIND : THE COMPREHENSIVE GU

Rating:
Summary: Thank you to the authors!
Review: I have to say that I felt let down by this book. It was recommended to me, and I picked it up with anticipation, ready to buy a copy. I was very disappointed, (as a psychotherapist specializing in recovery issues), to find that the dual diagnosis approach to recovery and mental health was mentioned exactly once, then ignored in favor of the old "either/or" paradigm discarded by most of us in the eighties; thus the sections on addiction and mental health are of limited use, since the interactions between the two are ignored. This book is better than nothing, but you'll have to infer your treatment plans if you let yourself be limited by its contents. Hopefully a forthcoming edition will bring it's recovery paradigm into the nineties, before they're too far behind us.

Rating:
Summary: Useful, but limited
Review: I have to say that I felt let down by this book. It was recommended to me, and I picked it up with anticipation, ready to buy a copy. I was very disappointed, (as a psychotherapist specializing in recovery issues), to find that the dual diagnosis approach to recovery and mental health was mentioned exactly once, then ignored in favor of the old "either/or" paradigm discarded by most of us in the eighties; thus the sections on addiction and mental health are of limited use, since the interactions between the two are ignored. This book is better than nothing, but you'll have to infer your treatment plans if you let yourself be limited by its contents. Hopefully a forthcoming edition will bring it's recovery paradigm into the nineties, before they're too far behind us.

Rating:
Summary: Thank you to the authors!
Review: My husband and I just found out our 13 year old daughter has a personality disorder (schizotypal specifically). We didn't get much information on either the diagnosis or how we could help our daughter from the mental health institute we have access to. So we first turned to the internet and looked up the diagnosis. Most of it was very technical, hard to understand and cynical. I found this book at our local library and it has helped us tremendously. It is clearly written for the general public to understand. We felt torn between finally finding something that helps us understand what's been going on and feeling depressed by the prognosis for the future. We think this book's a good start. Now what we'd like to find is a book that's written specifically for a teenager dealing with a personality disorder.

Rating:
Summary: So, there's something wrong with all of us?
Review: When I first picked up this book, I was eager to learn about modern psychology and its interactions with everyday life, particularly with men and aggression. Instead, I found a book that conveniently pegs a hole of abnormality for every single one of us. It's not original. It's purely a rehash of the DSM-IV, and not once did it even mention that it's a derivative work in the verso. Throughout the book the DSM-IV is constantly quoted and requoted, which, if you were to remove the quotes, it would leave you only with a preface and introduction to what the DSM-IV already covers. What plagerism!! The DSM-IV is easy enough to understand, but "Caring for the Mind" to me is nothing but a copycat. The lack of originality is disturbing enough. But I've read over 400 books in the last 12 months, so I have a good idea of what is a copycat and what is not.

All that aside, what really annoyed me was its classification of human behaviors. Sadness, lonlieness, isolation, aggression, anger, jealously, fatigue--the list goes on, like some kind of psycho-recipe book. Just mix up the "symptoms" and you could come with a disorder that they've conveniently named. What's your dish? Show me one person that's never been angry before. Show me one person who's not felt sad before, or lonely, or tired or afraid--and the author's want to call it a disorder? What arrogance! Negative emotions, ups and downs, are all a part of human life, but this book presumptiously implies that EACH of us has a syndrome of some kind. Whether male or female, rich or poor, there is a convenient hole for which your character or lifestyle can be pegged. So, we've all got a disorder. I guess what the book is really saying is that we're normal after all. If someone has a problem that deviates to the left or right of center, a medical journal or the original source for this book--the DSM-IV--already exists. Did the authors think that we didn't know about it? The only reason I gave more than one star is that the pages are easy to read and the English usage is good. Other than that, "Caring for the mind..." is insulting to the intelligence. I'm not buying it. Not recommended.