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Madness Cracked

Mick Power author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:6th Nov '14

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Madness Cracked cover

'The recent publication of a new edition of the American Diagnostic and Statistical manual (DSM-5) highlighted the two contrary viewpoints that exist within the field of mental health. There are those who value such classification systems, seeing each revision of the DSM as a fine-tuning exercise, and there are those who are strongly opposed, seeing such exercises as fundamentally flawed. 'Madness Cracked' provides a fascinating introduction to the history of psychiatry and clinical psychology, looking at how these areas have attempted to classify the various problems and disorders that their practitioners have faced in everyday use. Within the book, Power argues that - like in other areas of science - progress can only be made if the classification systems that are used have a sound theoretical basis. In addition, he outlines a model derived from work on cognition and emotion showing how, with appropriate modifications, it could provide a theoretical basis for classification and diagnosis. Using extraordinary examples from the history of psychiatry and clinical psychology, along with fascinating case material, he shows how our current knowledge in psychology can be developed to provide the theoretical basis that the field needs. For anyone in the field of mental health, Madness Cracked is a thought-provoking and controversial new book.'

A challenging, provocative and very useful analysis of mental health and mental illness that no practitioner or researcher will want to miss, which should provoke many interesting debates and clarifications. His thinking is broad, deep, unconventional, ans I believe, very useful. * Paul Ekman of The Paul Ekman Group, USA, Editor of What the Face Reveals, Second Edition (OUP, 2005) and author of The Nature of Emotion (OUP, 1995) *
A scholarly and highly informative account of the ubiquity and fragility of psychiatric diagnostic. What is especially appealing is that Madness Cracked doesn't take the well-worn route of rejecting classification, but instead, harnesses the best of cognitive and emotion science to show how the enterprise can be effectively reclaimed. * Zindel Segal, Dinstinguished Professor of Mood Disorders, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Canada *
Entertaining but informative, thought-provoking yet measured. In Madness Cracked Mich Power takes us on a journey that manages to bring together in a new way the biologicalm psychological and societal influences on how we should think about madness. * Andrew MacLeod, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK *
Psychiatric diagnostic categories are the bane of the clinical psychologists life. . . Madness Cracked is another attempt to make a case for an alternative diagnostic system, one that Mick Power calls the SPAARS model (schematic, propositional, analogical, and associative representational systems). * Henderikus J. Stam, Professor in the theory program, in the Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, in PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 61, No. 2, January 2016 *

ISBN: 9780198703877

Dimensions: 240mm x 162mm x 21mm

Weight: 540g

244 pages