Synopses & Reviews
A study of schizophrenia arising from an anthropological investigation in a modern psychiatric hospital.
Review
"Dr. Robert J. Barrett brings to this volume an interesting blend of medical and ethnographic perspectives on the culture of psychiatric institutions...highlights of the volume are the author's masterful application of social science theories to common clinical situations...Dr. Barrett uses helpful diagrams to illustrate complex ideas, and his style of writing is engaging, with a tone that is scholarly yet not abstract...I appreciate Dr. Barrett's cultural and anthropological observations of daily experiences in the care of hospitalized psychiatric patients...I highly recommend this book to anyone who works at a public psychiatric hospital and to those who are interested in learning about the culture of institutions." Antonia S. Austria, M.D., Psychiatric Services"I recommend the book highly to clinicians and researchers...Clinicians in training, including psychiatric registrars, would, I believe, derive great benefit and be pleasurably educated." Biological Psychiatry
Synopsis
This book is a study of schizophrenia in a modern psychiatric hospital, arising from an anthropological investigation of the work of clinical staff. Analysing the language used by hospital staff in writing and talking about their patients, it traces the evolution of the concept of schizophrenia, showing how contemporary theoretical constructs are applied by clinical staff. It will reveal to mental health professionals many of the unspoken assumptions of their role and confirms the power of the ethnographic approach in psychiatric research.
Table of Contents
Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Schizophrenia in context; 2. Time and space in a progressive psychiatric hospital; 3. Professional domains and the dimensions of a case; 4. Clinical teams and the âwhole personâ; 5. Documenting a case: the written construction of schizophrenia; 6. Moral trajectories: from acute psychosis to âchronic schizophrenicâ; 7. Historical formulations of schizophrenia: degeneration and disintegration; 8. Contemporary formulations of schizophrenia: explaining the inexplicable; 9. Schizophrenia for practical purposes; 10. The person, the case, and schizophrenia; References; Index.