Review of The mental hospital in the 21st century.

Reviews the book, The mental hospital in the 21st century by Emmanuel Persad, Shane S. Kazarian, and Llewellyn W. Joseph (1992). The authors not only review past endeavors in the delivery of mental health services but speculate as to the role the mental hospital may take in the years to come. The starting point for this book is a conference entitled "The Role of the Mental Hospital in the 21st Century" sponsored by the London Psychiatric Hospital in October 1990. The book features 20 brief chapters regrouped in three sections. In all, 29 contributors mainly from Canada, bring forth varying perspectives on the role of the mental hospital. The real contribution of this book is that it puts into perspective the magnitude of the challenge that confronts the major stakeholders in developing a comprehensive and balanced system of mental health services. The present book could serve as a starting point for some serious debate among the stakeholders about the way the mentally ill are treated and to determine how the role of the mental hospital should change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The mental health of Asian Americans.

Reviews the book, The mental health of Asian Americans by Stanley Sue and James K. Morishima (1982). In The Mental Health of Asian Americans, Sue and Morishima assess the current status of theory and research strategies in this field and initiate dialogue regarding future directions for our investigative energies and service delivery efforts. They are largely successful at this ambitious mission. Their work represents one of the best and most comprehensive texts on the special issues related to Asian-American mental health. Although this book was published in 1982, the theories presented and issues discussed remain extremely pertinent to the problems encountered today in providing services to this population. The authors' major intent is not to demonstrate how to deal with cross-cultural issues in treating Asian-American clients, although therapeutic techniques with a particular client may be extrapolated from their discussion and numerous case examples. Instead, the authors focus on strategies for improving research and delivery of mental health services, and attaining a theoretical understanding of treatment issues within the cultural context. The content is aimed at those who are in training or currently participating in mental health research and service delivery to persons of Asian descent. Yet, this book is of interest to all professionals who are seeking a well-researched text which is grounded in theory and describes the importance of cultural factors in developing mental health services to an ethnic minority population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The health planning predicament.

Reviews the book, The health planning predicament by Victor G. Rodwin (1984). There are many different ways health care can be distributed and paid for. Medical care utilization is an important behavior widely studied by health services researchers and by economists. Planning in health care requires an understanding of the need for services and the mechanisms required to pay for them. In this book, Rodwin presents a thoughtful analysis of the new challenges for health planners in four Western countries. Most Western cultures are guided by the assumption that medical care is good. Thus, most developed countries have increased access to medical care by creating systems for third-party payment of expenses. As a result, the availability of services for underserved groups has greatly improved. In addition, health care costs have steadily increased in most Western countries. A growing number of critics now argue that developed countries spend too much on health care and that ease of access has created new problems, including increased iatrogenic illness and threats to economic solvency. Rodwin addresses these and other questions by comparing health services systems in the United States, France, Canada, and England. Although these four countries have similar cultural and economic characteristics, they differ in the way they distribute health care services. The differences among the systems considered by Rodwin provide for many interesting comparisons of physician behavior, and of patient service utilization. They also provide a new basis for the evaluation of different health care policies. In summary, Victor Rodwin has produced an interesting and readable comparison of health planning in different countries. Despite different approaches to the same problem, all four governments are faced with a health planning predicament. The book is full of interesting insights and may stimulate new thinking about some very serious policy questions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology and Medicine: Psychobiological Dimensions of Health and Illness.

Reviews the book, Psychology and Medicine: Psychobiological Dimensions by Donald Bakal (1979). Bakal believes that psychology "is rapidly becoming an integral part of modern health care delivery systems" and directs his book toward developing this interest by showing the theoretical and practical relevance of psychological concepts to major health problems. In the first section, which has the inclusive title "Medicine: Mind and Body", he describes a "paradigm shift" in medicine, away from an emphasis on the physiological and biochemical systems as basic to understanding disease toward a "psychobiological" approach to illness which focuses on the inter-relationships between the social, psychological, and physiological determinants of health and disease. He amplifies this point by discussing such matters as personality-disease relationships, psychomatic medicine, a cross-cultural variation in models of health and illness and the implications of the split brain research for states of consciousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Outcomes assessment in clinical practice.

Reviews the book, Outcomes assessment in clinical practice edited by Lloyd I. Sederer and Barbara Dickey. This book is a timely publication dealing with the urgent and imperative situation in health care delivery, especially in the area of mental health services. There are four Sections in the book. Section I is titled Integrating Outcomes Assessment into Clinical Practice. This section conveys in a rational and reasonable sequence the definition, impetus, history, scope, process, and current crisis-like status of mental health care, in terms of its financing, its validity, and its effectiveness. Section II is called Instruments of Outcomes Assessment and contains sixteen chapters, each describing a different instrument of assessment. Section III optimistically proclaimed a future improvement of health care delivery and access. These five chapters were exciting, but require a most open and direct acknowledgement of the need for protection of patients and therapists in this field. Complementing Section II is Section IV which contains the Appendices. According to the reviewer, this book has the potential to advance the practice of psychotherapy. But presenting it as a means to satisfy so many volatile and uncontrolled social, political, economic, and other forces can lead to its corruption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Challenging the therapeutic state: Critical perspectives on psychiatry and the mental health system.

Reviews the special issue of The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Challenging the therapeutic state: Critical perspectives on psychiatry and the mental health system, edited by D. Cohen (1990). This special issue serves as an update on the critique of the medical model in psychiatry. In editing this volume, Cohen has assembled a collection of work from authors in many disciplines—including some laypersons—who are concerned with what they see as the frightening power of the "Therapeutic State." While the work of Thomas Szasz is a guiding light for several of these authors, they certainly are not all associated with his work. In fact, some of them explicitly disavow what they see as Szasz's overly simple stance toward madness. Moreover, the ideas in this volume expand the critique of the medical model far beyond the range of Szasz's work. Disagreements among authors are for the most part confined to a few footnotes in this volume. The book's purpose is to expose the problem before exploring solutions to it. When the volume is at its best, the papers are united by their contention that the medical model in psychiatry is disastrous both for individuals who are victimized by its institutions and practices, and for the society that embraces its disempowering philosophy. There is little, if any, brand new material in this book. Virtually all of the articles contain research and ideas tat the authors have already published elsewhere. The virtue of the book is in bringing together a diversity of work across disciplines that would not ordinarily appear between the same two covers. The common element running through all of these articles is one that the authors almost never state in so many words, but it gives a cumulative force to their very different treatments of psychiatry's problems. Each of these papers, in its own way, reveals aspects of the irrationality implicit in psychiatric orthodoxy. Psychiatry stands at the fringe of medical science, and the fringe of any science is where the inadequacies of its paradigm are most obvious. The attempt to make the medical model fit the problem of madness has not succeeded, but orthodox psychiatry continues to pursue it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Families of handicapped persons: Research, programs, and policy issues.

Reviews the book, Families of handicapped persons: Research, programs, and policy issues by James J. Gallagher and Peter M. Vietze (1986). This edited volume consists of a collection of papers presented at the Conference on Families with Mentally Retarded Children sponsored by the Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in cooperation with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The purpose of the conference was to stimulate leaders in the field to both review current trends and project future research directions regarding issues relevant to families having members with mental retardation. The main text of the book is composed of sixteen chapters covering a variety of topics, such as the development of typologies for classifying families, adaptation to stress, the impact of the family life cycle on family adaptation, the role of the father in the family, sibling relationships, mentally retarded parents, behavioral parent training, and social policy issues. A major strength of the book is that a number of the authors advocated four perspectives that reflect a positive shift in philosophical approaches to the study of families having a child with mental retardation. The present reviewer found Wickler's chapter applying Hill's ABCX Stress Model to the study of family adaptation to be the most useful presentation among those advocating a systems/transactional approach to research on families having a disabled member. Unlike Wickler, other chapters focusing on family systems/stress issues tended to present vague connections between popular theoretical approaches (e.g., family systems theories, stress theories, Samaroff s transactional model) and the needs of families having a member with mental retardation (although Farren, Metzger, & Sparling is an exception here). In summary, this book presents some interesting ideas regarding areas that should be investigated by further research. Selected chapters within the book are very well conceptualized and clearly written. Although the remaining chapters present interesting ideas, they tend to be repetitive and somewhat vague with respect to specific research suggestions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Shifting the paradigm in community mental health: Towards empowerment and community.

Reviews the book, Shifting the paradigm in community mental health: Towards empowerment and community by Geoffrey Nelson, John Lord, and Joanna Ochocka (2001). This book, as it combines theory, practice, and research (a case study) about the processes of empowerment and integration of consumers of mental health care in a Canadian setting, delineates strategies and approaches that can be factors in fulfilling this important aim. Shifting the Paradigm in Community Mental Health is a welcome contribution to the literature on the implementation of consumer empowerment and involvement in mental health treatment and care. The authors offer an approach enabling the reader to see the dimensions for empowerment and community integration termed the empowerment-community integration paradigm. The book will be useful for a wide audience, including consumers, professionals, stakeholders, researchers, and policy makers, and should be in the libraries of all institutions, formal and informal, that deliver mental health care. The overall clarity of the writing and all the approaches will be very much appreciated by all those who work or receive services in mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The IQ game: A methodological inquiry into the heredity-environment controversy and Intelligence, Heredity and Environment.

Reviews the books, The IQ Game. A Methodological Inquiry into the Heredity-Environment Controversy by Howard F. Taylor (1980); and Intelligence, Heredity and Environment by Philip E. Vernon (1979). A fundamental issue in psychology is the relation between differences in heredity and differences in human behaviour and mental characteristics. The history of vigorous debate on this question is ancient, and two recent books show that it is far from being resolved. The approaches and conclusions by the two authors are so different that they are best presented as a study of contrasts. In doing so, I have chosen three specific topics for discussion which are addressed explicitly by both authors. Taylor reviews Burt's publications as well as critiques by Kamin (1974), Dorfman (1978), Hearnshaw (1979) and others, concluding that the data 'obviously cannot be used in this analysis.' Vernon, on the other hand, reprints many of Burt's correlations for IQ scores of relatives in several tables and relies heavily on Sir Cyril's analyses. He notes there are reasons to doubt the accuracy of some of the figures, but he vigorously defends Burt against charges of fraud and accuses Leon Kamin, who first exposed Sir Cyril, of being 'a good deal more one-sided than Burt.' Both authors make extensive use of the concept of 'heritability,' but only Taylor explains it clearly and correctly. Of these two books, only the one by Taylor adds anything positive to the extensive discussions of heredity and intelligence during the last decade. The IQ Game is a major contribution, being thorough, critical and thought-provoking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Drugs, society, and human behavior (fourth edition).

Reviews the book, Drugs, society, and human behavior (fourth edition) by Oakley Ray and Charles Ksir (1987). This book balances experimental psychopharmacology, clinical problems, and social issues in the study of drugs and behavior. It begins with a discussion of drugs in society and describes how one society (U.S.A.) has responded to drugs as a social problem through regulation. The next three chapters turn to the basics of neurophysiology, drug categories, and the pharmacology of drug action. They are presented quite clearly and appealingly to students with no background and little previous interest in the biological side of psychology. Succeeding chapters deal with specific categories of drugs: stimulants, sedative/hypnotics, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, "over-the-counter" drugs, psychotherapeutics, "narcotics," hallucinogens, and cannabis. The next two chapters deal with prevention and treatment. The final chapter is aptly titled "A Rational Look at Drug Use." There are some serious gaps, some important areas which are ignored or only mentioned tangentially. There are also some missed opportunities, some areas that are touched on when they should be explored. However, the writing style is clear, coherent, and engaging. Ray and Ksir want to teach students about drugs--how they act and how they affect us as individuals and a society. In this sense, students learn a lot and emerge with a balanced, knowledge-based set of perspectives on drugs. This is certainly a laudable goal in the present sociopolitical climate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychology of health and health care: A Canadian perspective.

Reviews the book, The psychology of health and health care: A Canadian perspective by Gary Poole, Deborah Hunt Matheson, and David N. Cox (2001). This book is a timely introductory text that aims to situate the rapidly expanding field of health psychology within the geographic, socio-demographic, and empirical landscape of Canada. This textbook would be appropriate for beginning and intermediate undergraduate students across a range of disciplines, including psychology, public health, and nursing. As such, it has a number of features to commend it. It is written in a clear and concise style, with explanatory tracks guiding the reader step by step through each new concept. In keeping with health psychology's applied focus, web sites for important resources are provided and sample case studies are integrated with key concepts throughout each chapter. Finally, the up-to-date coverage of Canadian health statistics and research publications is a delight for those of us who have been struggling to find texts that reflect the unique ways in which we view, structure, fund, administer, and research health psychology and health care in this country. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Madness and government: Who cares for the mentally ill?.

Reviews the book, Madness and government: Who cares for the mentally ill? by Emory A. Foley and Steven S. Sharfstein (1983). This book is a fascinating factual account of the struggle to develop community intervention alternatives to the 100-year domination of the state hospital system in the United States. It is the story of the efforts of "Washington's Noble Conspirators," who struggled for more than 20 years after World War II to expand the amount of federal support of medical research, to get federal money into the care of people with mental disorders, and to obtain federal support for the training of mental health personnel and research into the whole area of mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Normality and the life cycle: A critical integration.

Reviews the book, Normality and the life cycle: A critical integration by Daniel Offer and Melvin Sabshin (1984). In 1966 and 1974, Basic Books published the first and second editions of Offer and Sabshin's Normality: Theoretical and Clinical Concepts of Mental Health. These volumes generated the proposal that a new field, called normatology, be established. It would focus on normality, normal behavior, and normal development. This still more recent volume develops the proposal and is an attempt to fill the need to "examine concepts of normality and definitions of normal behavior through time and across cultures". Both of the editors (and most of the contributors) are medically trained, and their professional orientation is apparent throughout the book. Although claims are made that the approach to normatology should be interdisciplinary, and four different concepts of normality are offered, the main concern of most of the chapters seem to be that of differentiating the healthy from the unhealthy. The editors even note that the terms "normality" and "mental health" are used interchangeably. Several chapters have a developmental orientation, but these too are typically concerned with distinguishing normal from abnormal developmental processes. Individual papers are scholarly, but in some cases seem directionless. The most seminal ideas in the book are presented by Mandell and Salk, whose chapter proposes a theory of emergent patterns that could have implications in the future both for general developmental theory and for specific theories of learning that might influence rehabilitation psychology. A previous reviewer has judged that this chapter alone is worth the price of the book, and this judgment may well be correct. Those who purchase this book should do so primarily for its reviews of the literature, which are generally complete and competent. Purchasers will probably be disappointed if they expect to find much that is of direct value to rehabilitation or that contributes in a substantive to the founding of a new science of normality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Cultural differences and medical care.

Reviews the book "Cultural Differences and Medical Care" by Lyle Saunders (1954). This volume, based on a sociologic study of the cultural pattern of the Spanish-speaking populations of the Southwest, attempts to analyze the barriers that limit their acceptance of modern health services and medical care. According to the reviewer, this book is well written and interesting but may well fail to reach many of the readers in the medical profession for whom it might be most valuable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The times, they are a changing: A review of Raising children in a socially toxic environment.

Reviews the book, Raising children in a socially toxic environment by J. Gabarino (1995). In this book, Garbarino sets out to offer his views on what childhood ought to be, how children map their own worlds (thus define, themselves), what their basic needs are, the levels in which those needs are being met, as well as offer suggestions for ways in which readers can change the "toxic environment" to aid in the healthy development of children and youth. The book is challenging to read because it is true. Although the pages are not replete with "hard data," they are filled with factual accounts that paint a discouraging, in fact depressing picture of the life of children in our communities. The book is powerful because, if successful, we are forced to accept the fact that this is American society today. There is no question that the issues articulated by Garbarino in this book, such as teenage homicide, gang warfare, domestic violence, and child abuse, are real. The influences of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977) and ecological systems theory provide the conceptual framework for this book. Accordingly, development is the result of complex interactions among child and family systems and the social environment in which they function. Related to the ecological orientation is the notion that "it takes a village" to effect change. In other words, there is an implicit message that successful, healthy childrearing is the shared responsibility of individuals, groups, communities, external forces, and broad-based sanctions and regulations. As such, readers who take this book seriously will be forced to look at it not only as a professional resource with "good information," but as a call to accept a role for working within their individual and community contexts to influence change. Although the book falls short in providing concrete directives for change, it sends a strong message that we are all responsible, and a more subtle message that change is possible. If each and every reader could make one or two changes in their own behaviors and priorities as an outcome of reading this book, it will have served an invaluable service. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The saturated self: Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life.

Reviews the book, The saturated self: Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life by Kenneth J. Gergen (see record 1991-97621-000). There is, perhaps, no other concept as seminal for psychology as the self. For this reason alone, Kenneth Gergen's book represents an important contribution to our understanding of this influential concept. However, Gergen's vision is so broad, his arguments so compelling, and the implications so revolutionary, that the work defies confinement exclusively within the walls of academia. In essence, Gergen is articulating his vision of a postmodern world, and he lays an invitation squarely before the reader to come and partake. The conception of the self as private and autonomous is the focus of Gergen's postmodern challenge. In his chapter, "Social Saturation and the Populated Self," Gergen postulates that technological innovation in contemporary society has made possible a rapid proliferation of relationships. This he refers to as the "process of social saturation." Gergen's book constitutes a substantive contribution to psychology's on going understanding of the self. Copious examples are provided throughout, drawing on and extending scholarly debates. Also included are anecdotes and evidences from such far ranging domains as art, film, music, literature, and architecture. These not only clarify and reinforce his arguments, but also illustrate the scope and practicality of the position he espouses. Although readers may not embrace the gestalt of Gergen's vision of a postmodern culture, they are certain to find this book to be a provocative and rewarding read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The uncertain mind: Individual differences in facing the unknown.

Reviews the book, The uncertain mind: Individual differences in facing the unknown by Richard M. Sorrentino and Christopher J. R. Roney (see record 2000-07377-000). The book under review is located within an important intellectual tradition in psychology, one that speaks to something about human nature. Sorrentino and Roney approach this topic through the study of individual differences in whether people seek out certainty or uncertainty in their lives. While some of us find meaning in terms of the familiar and predictable, others search for meaning in the novel uncertainties of life. This scholarly monograph describes a 15-year program of research, theoretically grounded in both earlier paradigms (e.g., Atkinson's motivational model) and contemporary social cognition. This monograph merits attention by researchers and students interested in social cognition, individual differences, and societal change. The writing is technical, and one would wish for chapter summaries. However, the book is clearly written, well-organized and at times thought-provoking; it is well worth the effort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Community Psychology: In Pursuit of Liberation and Well-being.

Reviews the book Community Psychology: In Pursuit of Liberation and Well-being, edited by Geoffrey Nelson and Isaac Prilleltensky (2005). As their subtitle suggests, the authors are concerned with many matters beyond a mental health focus. Although they modestly describe themselves as "editors," Nelson and Prilleltensky actually wrote most of the book, with only Parts 5 and 6 devoted to the work of others. In Part I, the authors introduce their project for community psychology, offering "issues, values, and tools for liberation and well-being." In Part II, "Values, Principles, and Conceptual Tools," the authors talk about sources of values and the way values are chosen to inform research and action. Part III, "Tools for Action," is devoted to interventions at various levels: social, organizational, small group, and individual. In Part IV, the authors present "Tools for Research." Part V presents diverse topics that include marginalization; globalization, poverty, and social justice; colonization and racism; immigration, adaptation, and the challenges of cultural diversity. Part VI, a final "look toward the future," talks about the new aims and definitions of community psychology presented by this text. This books is one of those rare texts that fully meets the twin purposes of providing ideas for the mature community psychologist as well as working as a text for advanced students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)