Madness Explained: Psychosis and Human Nature

"this is an excellent book which is both readable and yet gets into complexity of the issues"
~ Written on 2008-03-19

"Confession 1:I am a Psychiatrist.
Confession 2: Before I started this book I was expecting a deeply negative perception of modern psychiatry and little in the way of concrete evidence to support any alternative hypothesis. I anticipated this book to he read mainly by other psychologists, anti-psychiatrists and disgruntled patients.

However, I rapidly discovered that this is not the start of a new anti-psychiatry movement but in fact a fascinating, open-minded review of the current thinking about madness.

The first third of this book should be read by everyone involved in or interested in psychiatry, psychology, or just madness. It is a brilliant and genuinely gripping synthesis of the journey from dark age beliefs about madness to the current concepts. The author makes this potentially dreary history lesson vibrant, relevant and insightful and brings alive many of the key players whose legacies have outlived them, whether deservedly or not.

After this the author then goes on to explore in quite significant detail, the psychological and biological research into psychosis and related conditions. This is predictably heavier going but worth persevering with for the exciting and occasionally startling revelations.
As a result, he fairly comprehensively dismantles the traditional model of psychiatric classification but manages to bring even the most sceptical reader with him through this process.I did not find this as controversial as I expected, as most practising psychiatrists are already aware of the significant overlap in diagnoses and symptoms of these disorders. Richard Bentall then formulates draft models for approaching particular psychiatric symptoms.

There is much less controversial material in this book than I expected. The research discussed is reasonably balanced and the conclusions are tentative and never fundamentalist.

However, although interesting, evidence-based and realistic, the practical applications of the symptom-directed approach are not at all clear. Abandoning traditional psychiatric diagnoses altogether would at present leave patients, carers and health professionals with even less framework for approaching treatment, suggesting aetiology or predicting prognosis. This book may encourage us to be more flexible and patient-centred but I cannot yet see it changing frontline mental health care."
~ Written on 2007-02-16

"This is a great book regardless of whether you would like to understand madness or psychosis. It is an example of a well researched, well written, entertaning, interdisciplinairy take on a complex, fascinating and much misunderstood element of human experience. Some of the reviews here state their own preferences to approaching the subject and cite limitations in Bentall's own (self-aware) attempts to comprehend the phenomena of 'madness' from his own scientific/social agenda but so what? This book opens the door to new avenues of comprehending human experience as it in the very least shows the variety of ways in which human beings attempt to comprehend who we are and the limitations of the perspectives we offer. No right answers are on offer here but a critical, entertaining and accessible (and pretty comprehensive) survey of data so you can begin to start making your own mind up. Perhaps the best start for engaging with the themes of Psychosis and Madness."
~ Written on 2007-02-12

""Madness explained" is an excellent example of a new synthesis, which assertively, and of course scientifically, challenges the dehumanizing approach to mental health that dominated the mainstream of psychiatric practice over the last hundred years. By reviewing an impressive amount of scientific literature, Bentall argues that there are not any scientific evidence to suggest that biological changes in the brain are the primary cause of madness. These biochemical changes, Bentall argures, might be part of the brain's response to emotional trauma. He rejects the dualistic approach in investigating madness and propose a more scientific, and humanistic alternative, which embraces data from all other disciplines namely, neuroscience, anthropology, sociology and psychology.

Bentall also shows how categorical classification of psychological disorders has limited our understanding of the real nature of psychological disorders. He argues that by focusing on patients' complaints (symptoms),rather than focusing on invalid labelles, such as schizophrenia we can identify underlying psychological mechanisms, which are responsible for these meaningful symptoms.

I recommend this book to anybody who wants to have a better understanding of psychosis."
~ Written on 2005-09-06

"This has been by far one of my better buys within this field and I have been absorbed by the fascinating and indepth content. It gives a good history of all the lead figures involved with Schizophrenia and will enlighten the reader with facts. It does at times however, become a heavy read and some of the scientific and techinical jargon could confuse the less knowledgeable reader but it still offers the reader the oppurtunity to take in the information that they do understand. It has remained on my shelf as a great resource on the subject of Schizophrenia."
~ Written on 2005-03-16