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A review by lory_enterenchanted
Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
3.75
Whitaker's approach is heavy on anecdotes, but he tells a plausible and extremely disturbing story that he insists will be upheld by an honest look at the scientific evidence. You might be skeptical, but if there's even a chance that psychoactive drugs are doing the kind of harm being described, especially for children, there should be an immediate pullback on their prescription. Sadly, I think that is unlikely to happen, and mental illness will continue to skyrocket.
I am most intrigued by the kind of care he describes being carried out in Finland -- where health care workers actually LISTEN to patients and involve the family in therapy. But in most places people would rather throw pills at people than develop this kind of intensive, but effective care model.
In the 1970s "[Yrjö] Alanen believed that the hallucinations and paranoid utterances of schizophrenic patients, when carefully parsed, told meaningful stories. Hospital psychiatrists, nurses, and staff needed to listen to the patients." Ch. 16
"The patient would be encouraged to construct a new 'self-narrative' for going forward, the patient imagining a future where he or she was integrated into society, rather than isolated from it. 'With the biological conception of psychosis, you can't see the past achievements' or the future possibilities, [Jukka] Aaltonen said."
Current treatment in Tornio, western Lapland
"'open meetings,' where every participant freely shared his or her thoughts, would provide psychotic patients with a very different experience from conventional psychotherapy"
"'Psychosis does not live in the head. It lives in the in-between of family members, and the in-between of people,' [Tapio] Salo explained. 'It is in the relationship, and the one who is psychotic makes the bad condition visible. He or she 'wears the symptoms' and has the burden to carry them.'"
Job of the staff is to "promote an 'open dialogue' in which everybody's thoughts can become known, with the family members (and friends) viewed as coworkers."
"...Most patients want to tell their story, and when they speak of hallucinations and paranoid thoughts, the therapists simply listen and reflect upon what they've heard. 'I think [psychotic symptoms] are very interesting,' Kurtti said. 'What's the difference between voices and thoughts? We are having a conversation.'"
"'It's about restoring social connections,' Salo said. 'The "in-between" starts working again, with family and with friends.'"
Open-dialogue therapy
Only two or three cases now appear each year, a 90 percent drop since early 1980s
"All strong souls first go to hell before they do the healing of the world they came here for. If we are lucky, we return to help those still trapped below." Clarissa Pinkola Estés, from the poem Abre La Puerta in Theatre of the Imagination
I am most intrigued by the kind of care he describes being carried out in Finland -- where health care workers actually LISTEN to patients and involve the family in therapy. But in most places people would rather throw pills at people than develop this kind of intensive, but effective care model.
In the 1970s "[Yrjö] Alanen believed that the hallucinations and paranoid utterances of schizophrenic patients, when carefully parsed, told meaningful stories. Hospital psychiatrists, nurses, and staff needed to listen to the patients." Ch. 16
"The patient would be encouraged to construct a new 'self-narrative' for going forward, the patient imagining a future where he or she was integrated into society, rather than isolated from it. 'With the biological conception of psychosis, you can't see the past achievements' or the future possibilities, [Jukka] Aaltonen said."
Current treatment in Tornio, western Lapland
"'open meetings,' where every participant freely shared his or her thoughts, would provide psychotic patients with a very different experience from conventional psychotherapy"
"'Psychosis does not live in the head. It lives in the in-between of family members, and the in-between of people,' [Tapio] Salo explained. 'It is in the relationship, and the one who is psychotic makes the bad condition visible. He or she 'wears the symptoms' and has the burden to carry them.'"
Job of the staff is to "promote an 'open dialogue' in which everybody's thoughts can become known, with the family members (and friends) viewed as coworkers."
"...Most patients want to tell their story, and when they speak of hallucinations and paranoid thoughts, the therapists simply listen and reflect upon what they've heard. 'I think [psychotic symptoms] are very interesting,' Kurtti said. 'What's the difference between voices and thoughts? We are having a conversation.'"
"'It's about restoring social connections,' Salo said. 'The "in-between" starts working again, with family and with friends.'"
Open-dialogue therapy
Only two or three cases now appear each year, a 90 percent drop since early 1980s
"All strong souls first go to hell before they do the healing of the world they came here for. If we are lucky, we return to help those still trapped below." Clarissa Pinkola Estés, from the poem Abre La Puerta in Theatre of the Imagination