Originally published in 1980, First Aid in Mental Health offers a clear, helpful and sympathetic guide to the nature of mental illness and the kinds of help and treatment available at the time. Joy Melville looks in particular at: warning signs, medical help, schizophrenia, anxiety and stress, depression, post-natal depression, anorexia, elderly mentally infirm, patient’s rights, treatment, and supplies not only a practical and sensible account of the nature and problems of mental illness, but also the reassurance that the sufferers and their families are not alone and help is...

Originally published in 1986, this volume presents the clinical and administrative aspects of emergency psychiatry from the point of view of the clinician administrator involved in organizing and running an emergency service. Part 1 provides an administrative overview of psychiatric emergency care – the development of the field, the concepts, the patient profile, the team, the architecture, fiscal planning, legal constraints as well as training and research issues. Part 2 describes psychiatric emergency care delivery systems in the emergency department, the average hospital wards, the...

In the 1980s, transcultural psychiatry was a developing field which was commanding increasing attention for three major reasons. First, many societies were becoming more and more multicultural, and therefore professional health workers needed to be aware of the needs and background of ethnic groups, as well as to be familiar with their own cultural assumptions. Secondly, the study of psychiatric illness across cultures can illuminate features of such an illness in our own society. Thirdly, the way in which racism may initiate or sustain psychiatric disorder had become a topic essential to...

Originally published in 1997, this title describes therapeutic applications of simple to complex combinations of medications to treat common psychiatric disorders among adults. Dr Joseph discusses practical, clinical guidelines that both the beginner and experienced practitioner will find useful. The 100 psychopharmacological cases presented in Part 2 illustrate the application of the diagnostic and treatment concepts described in Part 1. The cases are grouped into simple, moderately complex, and complex cases. The clinical cases, besides evoking a "hands-on" feeling which facilitates...

Dr Ratcliffe had long experience lecturing to a wide variety of audiences as a child psychiatrist. This title, originally published in 1970, is a collection of twelve of these lectures, given by him on various ‘special occasions’ during the years prior to publication, in which he emphasized the importance of environmental factors in understanding and working with children.

The subjects include residential work with children, school phobia, adolescence, the problem family, relationship therapy and casework, the three-generation family, and child guidance techniques. The final...

In September 1969, Ted Clark, Dennis Jaffe, and Yvonne Durchfort (now Yvonne Jaffe) started "Number Nine", a crisis telephone line. Initially this was an attempt to discover from young people themselves exactly what the needs of young people were, in order that a program relevant to those needs might be developed. The crisis line program, in itself, proved useful and meaningful to young people as they began calling in increasing numbers. Since many community agencies – through their insistence that young people cooperate with a value system that does not engender trust – alienated...

Originally published in 1975, this book examines the various types of psychological disturbance, shows how they have come to be regarded as illnesses, and examines critically the notion of psychiatric diagnosis. It describes how clinical psychology has grown up within psychiatry to support a conceptual system antithetical to it.

The author goes on to describe the theories and therapies that do not adhere particularly to the notion of mental illness. Today it can be enjoyed in its historical perspective.

Originally published in 1989, the primary aim of this text was to provide a guide to the interview assessment of a wide range of common adult psychological problems. Emphasis is placed on the kinds of problems that were frequently encountered in outpatient centres at the time. The authors provide a general introduction to the nature and causes of each of the selected problems, with a focus on the kind of background knowledge that may be useful in the planning of initial interviews and the selection of appropriate interventions. Detailed examples are provided of the questions that may help...

Social psychiatry is concerned with the interaction of the sociocultural environment and the individual. While recognizing the contribution of psychodynamic factors, it focuses on the impact of the environment on the individual and the reciprocal effect of the individual on the environment. Social psychiatry includes such social problems as migration, acculturation, industrialization, poverty, discrimination, and automation.

Originally published in 1970, the articles in this timely collection are in five different areas: definitions and parameters, epidemiology, community...

Originally published in 1973, this book is about people and psychiatry. About people who rejected psychiatry as it was generally practised at the time, people who sought for and found alternative ways of caring for and healing one another.

The author, who had been active in radical alternatives to psychiatry for some time, offers us a programme based not on drugs, repression and a ‘questionable’ expertise, but on human caring, greater awareness of the body, deeper communication between persons and a willingness to let the emotions flow. It is a challenging alternative which...