J. Moncrieff

This book exposes the traditional view that psychiatric drugs correct chemical imbalances as a dangerous fraud. It traces the emergence of this view and the way it supported the vested interests of the psychiatric profession, the pharmaceutical industry and the modern state. Instead it is proposed that psychiatric drugs 'work' by creating abnormal brain states, which are often unpleasant and impair normal intellectual and emotional functions along with other harmful consequences. Research on antipsychotics, antidepressants and mood stabilisers is examined to demonstrate this thesis and it is suggested that acknowledging the real nature of psychiatric drugs would lead to a more democratic practice of psychiatry. Sample Chapter: http://www.palgrave.com/PDFs/0230574319.Pdf

A Critique of Psychiatric Drug Treatment

The Myth of the Chemical Cure

The Troubling Story of Antipsychotic Drugs

The Bitterest Pills

A challenging reappraisal of the history of antipsychotics, revealing how they were transformed from neurological poisons into magical cures, their benefits exaggerated and their toxic effects minimized or ignored.

J. Dillon

M. Rapley

Psychiatry and psychology have constructed a mental health system that does no justice to the problems it claims to understand and creates multiple problems for its users. Yet the myth of biologically-based mental illness defines our present. The book rethinks madness and distress reclaiming them as human, not medical, experiences.

Psychiatry, Psychology and the Human Condition

De-Medicalizing Misery

E. Speed

This book extends the critical scope of the previous volume, De-Medicalizing Misery, into a wider social and political context, developing the critique of the psychiatrization of Western society. It explores the contemporary mental health landscape and poses possible alternative solutions to the continuing issues of emotional distress.

Society, Politics and the Mental Health Industry

De-Medicalizing Misery II

This book overturns the idea that psychiatric drugs work by correcting chemical imbalance and analyzes the professional, commercial and political vested interests that have shaped this view. It provides a comprehensive critique of research on drugs including antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers.

J. Moncrieff

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