Critical Perspectives in 
Psychiatry and Mental Health:
A self-paced eLearning Workshop
Disclaimer: This eLearning Workshop website has been developed as part of a Master's course project on Health Professional Education. The designer is not a Psychiatrist nor a Mental Health professional. Therefore, the content of this site is for demonstration purposes only and should not be used in a clinical setting without professional input regarding its safety and appropriateness. The designer assumes no responsibility, legal or otherwise, for the content.

Reading List and Website Links

The list of books and websites below is intended as a starting point for your personal exploration of Critical Perspectives in Psychiatry and Mental Health. 

Please note that these items have not been properly evaluated and should be reviewed with your own personal discretion in mind. No endorsement of these items is intended nor implied. 

These items also serve as the primary references for the content for the other nine components of this eLearning Workshop.

Books

1.	Adams, Patch (1993). Gesundheit! Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press. 

From the Publisher:
"Gesundheit! Institute is the dream of a growing number of people, an experiment in holistic medical care based on the belief that one cannot separate the health of the individual from the health of the family, the community, and the world. We have taken the most expensive service in America, medical care, and given it away for free. We are now building a facility in West Virginia that embodies this philosophy: a free, home-style hospital and health center, open to anyone from anywhere. We want this center to be a health care model, not necessarily to be copied by others but to stimulate caregivers and hospitals to develop an ideal medical approach for their communities."

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

2.	Burns, David (1980). Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. New York: Avon Books.

From the Publisher:
The good news is that anxiety, guilt, pessimism, procrastination, low self-esteem, and other "black holes" of depression can be cured without drugs. In Feeling Good, eminent psychiatrist, David D. Burns, M.D., outlines the remarkable, scientifically proven techniques that will immediately lift your spirits and help you develop a positive outlook on life. Now, in this updated edition, Dr. Burns adds an All-New Consumer's Guide To Anti-depressant Drugs as well as a new introduction to help answer your questions about the many options available for treating depression. 

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

3.	Chesler, Phyllis (2005). Women and Madness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

From the Publisher:
Classic, seminal, definitive - when Women and Madness first published in 1972, it was the first book to address critical questions about women and mental health. Combining interviews with patients with an analysis of women's roles in history, society and myth, Chesler exposes and addresses the terrible double standard prevalent in the field of mental health. Now fully revised and updated for 2006 - this book includes an extensive new introduction and addresses a wide range of important current issues, such as inter-feminist fighting, paedophilia, Islamic women's suicide, clinical distrust of mothers, weight and eating disorders, lesbians, bisexuality and homophobia , and many others.

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

4.	Foucault, Michel (1965). Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York: Random House. 

From the Publisher:
Perhaps the French philosopher's masterpiece, which is concerned with an extraordinary question: What does it mean to be mad?

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

5.	Foucault, Michel (2006). Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1973-1974. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

From the Publisher:
In this new addition to the Collège de France Lecture Series, Michel Foucault’s historical enquiry into the uses and techniques of power and knowledge finds itself directed towards a study of the birth of psychiatry. Psychiatric Power shows not only how Western society’s division of the ‘mad’ from the ‘sane’ began but also how the apparatuses of society, the institutions of medicine and law, and their treatment of the ‘mad’ developed into what we now recognize as modern psychiatry and, more widely, modern social and political attitudes towards madness. A seminal new work by this leading thinker of the modern age, Psychiatric Power builds on Foucault’s published writings whilst opening new vistas within historical and philosophical study.

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

6.	Foucault, Michel (1976). Mental Illness and Psychology. New York: Harper & Row. 

From the Publisher:
Written in 1954 and revised in 1962, "Mental Illness and Psychology" delineates the shift that occurred in Foucault's thought during this period. Part I reflects Foucault's early interest in Freud and the psychoanalytic tradition. Respectful of Freud, Foucault is still contending with Freud's influence. Part II, rewritten in 1962, marks a dramatic change in Foucault's thinking. Examining the history of madness as a social and cultural construct, he has moved outside of the psychoanalytic tradition into the racial critique of Freud that was to dominate his later work.

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

7.	Frankl, Viktor (1959). Man’s Search for Meaning. Boston: Beacon Press.

From the Publisher:
Frankl's timeless memoir and meditation on finding meaning in the midst of suffering With a new Foreword by Harold S. Kushner and a new Biographical Afterword by William J. Winslade Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful. At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey for the Library of Congress that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America. Beacon Press, the original English-language publisher of Man's Search for Meaning, is issuing this new paperback edition with a new Foreword, biographical Afterword, jacket, price, and classroom materials to reach new generations of readers.

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

8.	Frankl, Viktor (2000). Recollections: An Autobiography. Cambridge, MA: Basic Books. 

From the Publisher:
Born in 1905 in the center of the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire, Viktor Frankl was a witness to the great political, philosophical, and scientific upheavals of the twentieth century. In these stirring recollections, Frankl describes how as a young doctor of neurology in prewar Vienna his disagreements with Freud and Adler led to the development of "the third Viennese School of Psychotherapy", known as logotherapy; recounts his harrowing trials in four concentration camps during the War; and reflects on the celebrity brought by the publication of Man's Search for Meaning in 1945.

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

9.	Frankl, Viktor (2004). On the Theory and Therapy of Mental Disorders. New York: Brunner-Routledge. 

From the Publisher:
Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy", was developed by Viktor Frankl and first published in 1938. It regards the search for meaning as the primary human motivation. Since persons are capable of deciding, they are also responsible for their decisions. A human being is not a mere puppet of biological, hereditary and environmental forces, but is always free to take a stand toward inner conditions and outer circumstances. It is the objective of the psychotherapy based on this anthropological view to accompany the clients on the way to finding possibilities for concrete meaning in their respective life situations. Logotherapy offers help at re-orientation and recovery by strengthening trust in the unconditional meaningfulness of life and the dignity of the person. Logotherapy and Existential Analysis has been internationally recognized for decades as an empirically supported humanistic school of psychotherapy. Evidence for the growing significance of logotherapy includes institutes, societies and professorships in many countries of the world, as well as conferences and publications. On the Theory and Therapy of Neuroses: An Introduction to Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, the translation of Frankl's Theorie und Therapie der Neurosen by James M. DuBois, will allow for the first time English-only readers to experience this essential text on logotherapy.

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

10.	Gramsci, Antonio (2000). The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings, 1916-1935. New York: New York University Press. 

From the Publisher:
The most complete one-volume collection of writings by one of the most fascinating thinkers in the history of Marxism, The Antonio Gramsci Reader fills the need for a broad and general introduction to this major figure. Antonio Gramsci was one of the most important theorists of class, culture, and the state since Karl Marx. In the U.S., where his writings were long unavailable, his stature has lately so increased that every serious student of Marxism, political theory, or modern Italian history must now read him. Imprisoned by the Fascists for much of his adult life, Gramsci wrote brilliantly on a broad range of subjects: from folklore to philosophy, popular culture to political strategy. Still the most comprehensive collection of Gramsci's writings available in English, it now features a new introduction by leading Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, in addition to its biographical introduction, informative introductions to each section, and glossary of key terms.

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

11.	Moodley, Roy & West, William, Eds. (2005). Integrating Traditional Healing Practices Into Counseling and Psychotherapy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 

From the Publisher:
Critically examines ethnic minority cultural and traditional healing in relation to counseling and psychotherapy. Authors Roy Moodley and William West highlight the challenges and changes in the field of multicultural counseling and psychotherapy by integrating current issues of traditional healing with contemporary practice. The book uniquely presents a range of accounts of the dilemmas and issues facing students, professional counselors, psychotherapists, social workers, researchers, and others who use multicultural counseling or transcultural psychotherapy as part of their professional practice.  

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Caversham Books] [Purchase from Amazon]

12.	Pickering, Neil (2006). The Metaphor of Mental Illness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

From the Publisher:
Despite the currency of the notion of mental illness, there are those who take the radical skeptical line that mental illness is a fabrication. This is a book which takes this skeptical line seriously - perhaps more seriously than almost any other book not written by skeptics themselves. The Metaphor of Mental Illness is a revaluation of the traditional philosophical disputes about the existence and nature of mental illness. It puts forward a new view of mental illness and proposes a resolution of the issues, carefully guiding the reader through the issues and debates. Accessible to the specialists and those new to the field, the book is full of practical examples, both historical and modern.

[Publisher Info] [Purchase from Chapters/Indigo] [Purchase from Amazon]

Websites

1.	The Antipsychiatry Coalition
http://www.antipsychiatry.org
2.	Canadian Mental Health Association
http://www.cmha.ca
3.	Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
http://www.camh.net
4.	Check Up from the Neck Up
http://www.checkupfromtheneckup.ca
5.	Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault
http://capa.oise.utoronto.ca
6.	The Gesundheit! Institute
http://www.patchadams.org
7.	Huff (Showcase TV Show)
http://www.showcase.ca/huff
8.	International Network of Treatment Alternatives for Recovery
http://www.intar.org
9.	Mad Student Society
http://www.madstudentsociety.com
10.	Mind Freedom
http://mindfreedom.org
11.	Natural Psychotherapy
http://naturalpsychotherapy.com
12.	Out of the Shadows at Last (Senate report on Canadian Mental Health)
http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/soci-e/rep-e/rep02may06-e.htm 
13.	Positive Psychology Center (University of Pennsylvania) 
http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu
14.	Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto
http://psychiatricsurvivorarchives.com
15.	Sound Times Support Services
http://www.soundtimes.com
16.	Stop Shrinks
http://www.stopshrinks.org
17.	The Viktor Frankl Institute Vienna
http://logotherapy.univie.ac.at 

© 2007, Alex Drossos. Prepared for the OISE/UT course, TPS1820: The Healing Teacher