Synopses & Reviews
In an effort to enlighten a new generation about its growing reliance on psychiatry, this illuminating volume investigates why psychiatry has become the fastest-growing medical field in history; why psychiatric drugs are now more widely prescribed than ever before; and why psychiatry, without solid scientific justification, keeps expanding the number of mental disorders it believes to exist.This revealing volume shows that these issues can be explained by one startling fact: in recent decades psychiatry has become so motivated by power that it has put the pursuit of pharmaceutical riches above its patients' well being. Readers will be shocked and dismayed to discover that psychiatry, in the name of helping others, has actually been helping itself.In a style reminiscent of Ben Goldacre's Bad Science and investigative in tone, James Davies reveals psychiatry's hidden failings and how the field of study must change if it is to ever win back its patients' trust.
Review
"Rich in valuable insights, well written, and thoroughly resourced.Essential reading for anyone who is interested in the philosophical, historical, social, and political implications of the construction of psychoanalysis in the twentieth century." The European Journal of Psychotherapy
Review
"James Davies offers a highly original and insightful approach. Drawing from anthropology, philosophy, and psychology, Davies weaves a rich narrative that deserves to be widely read." Dead Alistair Ross, Oxford University
Synopsis
An expose of the current state of psychiatry that reveals how the pursuit of pharmaceutical riches has compromised the patients' wellbeing.
Synopsis
A "thought-provoking" look at the psychiatric profession, the overprescribing of pharmaceuticals, and the cost to patients' health (
Booklist).
In an effort to enlighten a new generation about its growing reliance on psychiatry, this illuminating volume investigates why psychiatry has become the fastest-growing medical field in history; why psychiatric drugs are now more widely prescribed than ever before; and why psychiatry, without solid scientific justification, keeps expanding the number of mental disorders it believes to exist.This revealing volume shows that these issues can be explained by one startling fact: in recent decades psychiatry has become so motivated by power that it has put the pursuit of pharmaceutical riches above its patients'''' wellbeing. Readers will be shocked and dismayed to discover that psychiatry, in the name of helping others, has actually been helping itself.In a style reminiscent of Ben Goldacre''''s Bad Science and investigative in tone, James Davies reveals psychiatry's hidden failings and how the field of study must change if it is to ever win back its patients'''' trust.
About the Author
James Davies attained his PhD in social and medical anthropology at Oxford. He is a practicing psychological therapist as well as the author of The Importance of Suffering: Emotions in the Field; and The Making of Psychotherapists. He has lectured at Harvard, Brown, the New School, Yale, and Oxford. James lives in England.