Twelve Cases: A Psychiatrist’s True Stories of Mental Illness and Addiction [and Other Human Predispositions]


Daniel Mierlak - 2018
    Daniel Mierlak, a psychiatrist for twenty-five years, on a journey to the stranger corners of human experience. Here you’ll meet: Tony, chauffeur to the fabulously rich, who overcomes crippling anxiety only to find himself descend into a homicidal rage following a botched cosmetic procedure. Amanda, hospitalized for mania, who sees a change to her medicine as an assassination attempt, and then stalks her doctor for a year after discharge. James, a schizophrenic hearing voices telling him to kill himself, whose piano playing leads to a shocking secret about his past. Psychiatric treatment is normally a private encounter and often misunderstood. In describing twelve of his most challenging cases, Dr. Mierlak brings you into his sessions, into his patients’ lives, and into the world of psychiatry. Get ready for some surprises.

Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl


Stacy Pershall - 2010
    . . ranges from the shocking to the simply lovely." —Marya Hornbacher Stacy Pershall grew up depressed and too smart for her own good, a deeply strange girl in Prairie Grove, Arkansas (population 1,000), where the prevailing wisdom was that Jesus healed all. From her days as a thirteen-year-old Jesus freak, through a battle with anorexia and bulimia, her first manic episode at eighteen, and the eventual diagnosis of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, this spirited and at times mordantly funny memoir chronicles Pershall's journey through hell-several breakdowns and suicide attempts—and her struggle with the mental health care system. After her 2001 suicide attempt, broadcast live on a Webcam, Pershall realized the need to heal her mind and body. She found a revolutionary cure (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) and a new mood-stabilizing medication. She also met a tattoo artist and discovered the healing power of body modification. By giving over her skin and enduring the physical pain, she learned about the true nature of trust.

Medical-Surgical Nursing: Patient-Centered Collaborative Care, Single Volume


Donna D. Ignatavicius - 2009
    Ignatavicius and M. Linda Workman cover all the latest trends, evidence-based treatment guidelines, and additional updated information needed for safe clinical practice in medical-surgical nursing. This seventh edition features an expanded emphasis on patient safety and NCLEX? Examination preparation, new ties to the QSEN priorities for patient safety, and a greater alignment with the language and focus of clinical practice. A new chapter on evidence-based practice and a wealth of effective online learning tools help solidify your mastery of medical-surgical nursing.

Zen Miracles: Finding Peace in an Insane World


Brenda Shoshanna - 2002
    Beautifully written, funny, warm, and filled with unusual, wonderful exercises. A real miracle.--Rabbi Gary Moskowitz, Director of the Institute for Violence Prevention"A healing journey into the inner conflicts and contradictions that separate spirit from self." --Armand DiMele, the DiMele Center for Psychotherapy"Dr. Brenda Shoshanna is a versatile, creative, warm, and truly excellent teacher." --Rabbi Joseph Gelberman, founder of the Interfaith Seminary and Director of the All Faith Seminary"Zen Miracles is an inviting and inspiring message for those looking for a more simple and powerful way to enhance their lives and for those who want to integrate a practical way of peace in today's distorted and increasingly violent world."--Bob Goff, NY Naturally"Zen Miracles is a book that is invaluable for anyone seeking to bring a profound, yet genuinely joyous, experience to life. Brenda Shoshanna explores the spiritual and therapeutic aspects of Zen practice in a way that is acceptable to anyone, no matter what their faith, philosophy, or religious beliefs. With her warm and compassionate style, she exhibits the unique ability to explain even the most difficult ideas in understandable terms. Her approach is readily accessible and applicable to even the most mundane of activities. This book is a must for anyone seeking the secrets for attaining a balanced life and true peace of mind."--Lewis Harrison, Director of the Academy of Natural Healing

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic


Darby Penney - 2008
     It is a remarkable portrait, too, of the life of a psychiatric asylum--the sort of community in which, for better and for worse, hundreds of thousands of people lived out their lives.More than four hundred abandoned suitcases filled with patients’ belongings were found when Willard Psychiatric Center closed in 1995 after 125 years of operation. They are skillfully examined here and compared to the written record to create a moving—and devastating—group portrait of twentieth-century American psychiatric care.

The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion


Gwen Adshead - 2021
    Gwen Adshead provides fresh and surprising insights into violence and the mind. Through a collaboration with coauthor Eileen Horne, Dr. Adshead brings her extraordinary career to life in a series of unflinching portraits. Alongside doctor and patient, we discover what human cruelty, ranging from serial homicide to stalking, arson or sexual offending, means to perpetrators, experiencing first-hand how minds can change when the people some might label as “evil” are able to take responsibility for their life stories and get to know their own minds. With outcomes ranging from hope to despair, from denial to recovery, these men and women are revealed in all their complexity and shared humanity.

Exploring Social Psychology


David G. Myers - 1993
    Thirty-one short modules--each readable in a single sitting--introduce students to important social phenomena and to how scientists discover and explain such phenomena.Throughout, students are challenged to think critically about such issues as: - How does our thinking - both conscious and unconscious - drive our behavior? - What leads people sometimes to hurt and sometimes to help one another? - What kindles social conflict, and how can we transform closed fists into helping hands?Answering these and other questions, Exploring Social Psychology, 6th Edition expands our self-understanding and sensitizes us to the social forces that pull our strings.

Foundations of Behavioral Neuroscience [with MyPsychLab & eText Access Code]


Neil R. Carlson - 2010
    " The ninth edition of "Foundations of Behavioral Neuroscience" offers a concise introduction to behavioral neuroscience. The text incorporates the latest studies and research in the rapidly changing fields of neuroscience and physiological psychology. The theme of strategies of learning helps readers apply these research findings to daily life. "Foundations of Behavioral Neuroscience "is an ideal choice for the instructor who wants a concise text with a good balance of human and animal studies. MyPsychLab is an integral part of the Carlson program. Key learning applications include the MyPsychLab Brain. Teaching & Learning Experience"Personalize Learning"" - "MyPsychLab is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program. It helps students prepare for class and instructor gauge individual and class performance."Improve Critical Thinking"" "-Each chapter begins with a list of Learning Objectives that also serve as the framework for the Study Guide that accompanies this text."Engage Students"" "-An Interim Summary follows each major section of the book. The summaries provide useful reviews and also break each chapter into manageable chunks."Explore Theory/Research"" - "APS Reader, "Current Directions in Biopsychology" in MyPsychLab"Support Instructors"" "- A full set of supplements, including MyPsychLab, provides instructors with all the resources and support they need.0205962092 / 9780205962099 Foundations of Behavioral Neuroscience Plus NEW MyPsychLab with eText -- Access Card Package Package consists of: 0205206514 / 9780205206513 NEW MyPsychLab with Pearson eText -- Valuepack Access Card 0205940242 / 9780205940240 Foundations of Behavioral Neuroscience

Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Case Approach


Nancy L. Murdock - 2003
    At the beginning each chapter, readers “meet” a new client through a case example. The author then presents the theory’s basic philosophical assumptions; its beliefs about what motivates human behavior; its central constructs; its picture of how humans develop; its ideas about what constitutes mental health and dysfunction; its perspective on how our relationships with those around us impact our functioning; and its view of how our behavior, thoughts, and emotion impact our functioning. Throughout each chapter, the author immediately illustrates the application of a construct or process by showing how it relates to the client case described at the beginning of the chapter, demonstrating the translation of each theory into practice. The second edition includes three new chapters (Chapter 3: Neoanalytic Approaches, Chapter 6: Existential Psychotherapy, Chapter 15: Narrative Therapy) and a companion DVD to accompany the texts. See applications of theory come to life! The Theories in Action DVD illustrates six therapists of different theoretical orientations working with the same client.

Falling Into the Fire: A Psychiatrist's Encounters with the Mind in Crisis


Christine Montross - 2013
    A new mother is admitted with incessant visions of harming her child. A recent graduate, dressed in a tunic and declaring that love emanates from everything around him, is brought to A&E by his alarmed girlfriend. These are among the patients new physician Christine Montross meets during rounds at her hospital’s locked inpatient ward – and who we meet as she struggles to understand the mysteries of the mind, most especially when the tools of modern medicine are failing us. Beautifully written and deeply felt, Falling into the Fire is an intimate portrait of psychiatry and a moving reminder, in the words of the New York Times, of 'our fragile, shared humanity'

The Other Side of the Couch: A Psychiatrist Solves His Most Unusual Cases


Gary Small - 2011
    Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind A psychiatrist’s stories of his most bizarre cases, The Other Side of the Couch (originally published in hardcover as The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head) by Gary Small, M.D., and Gigi Vorgan—co-authors of The Memory Bible—offers a fascinating and highly entertaining look into the peculiarities of the human mind. In the vein of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings, and the other bestselling works of Oliver Sacks, The Other Side of the Couch surprises, enthralls, and illuminates as it focuses on medical mysteries that would stump and amaze the brilliant brains on House, M.D.

The Good Psychologist


Noam Shpancer - 2010
    . . An astonishing debut."--Jonathan KellermanNoam Shpancer's stunning debut novel opens as a psychologist reluctantly takes on a new client--an exotic dancer whose severe anxiety is keeping her from the stage. The psychologist, a solitary professional who also teaches a lively night class, helps the client confront her fears. But as treatment unfolds, her struggles and secrets begin to radiate onto his life, upsetting the precarious balance in his unresolved relationship with Nina, a married former colleague with whom he has a child--a child he has never met. As the shell of his detachment begins to crack, he suddenly finds himself too deeply involved, the boundary lines between professional and personal, between help and harm, blurring dangerously.With its wonderfully distinctive narrative voice, rich with humor and humanity, "The Good Psychologist" leads the reader on a journey into the heart of the therapy process and beyond, examining some of the fundamental questions of the soul: to move or be still; to defy or obey; to let go or hold on.

The Women on My Couch: More Stories of Sex, Love and Psychotherapy


Brandy Engler - 2015
    Dr. Brandy Engler, psychologist and sex therapist, allows readers access into the therapy room to witness how women are handling dilemmas such as: a husband’s proposal for a threesome, post- wedding disappointment, a new lover’s unusual kink, the temptation to cheat, love vs. singlehood, using sex work to pay for college loans and the ubiquitous loss of sexual desire.The Women on My Couch gives women a voice, and helps them find their voice, in a rapidly changing culture, where freedom is both liberating and confusing, exhilarating and at times disappointing. Women will see their lives mirrored back to them with honesty, warmth and humor.

The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls


Emilie Autumn - 2009
    their doctors."It was the dog who found me."Such is the stark confession launching the harrowing scene that begins The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls as Emilie Autumn, a young musician on the verge of a bright career, attempts suicide by overdosing on the antipsychotics prescribed to treat her bipolar disorder. Upon being discovered, Emilie is revived and immediately incarcerated in a maximum-security psych ward, despite her protestations that she is not crazy, and can provide valid reasons for her actions if someone would only listen.Treated as a criminal, heavily medicated, and stripped of all freedoms, Emilie is denied communication with the outside world, and falls prey to the unwelcome attentions of Dr. Sharp, head of the hospital's psychiatry department. As Dr. Sharp grows more predatory by the day, Emilie begins a secret diary to document her terrifying experience, and to maintain her sanity in this environment that could surely drive anyone mad. But when Emilie opens her notebook to find a desperate letter from a young woman imprisoned within an insane asylum in Victorian England, and bearing her own name and description, a portal to another world is blasted wide open.As these letters from the past continue to appear, Emilie escapes further into this mysterious alternate reality where sisterhoods are formed, romance between female inmates blossoms, striped wallpaper writhes with ghosts, and highly intellectual rats speak the Queen's English.But is it real? Or is Emilie truly as mad as she is constantly told she is?The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls blurs harsh reality and magical historical fantasy whilst issuing a scathing critique of society's treatment of women and the mental health care industry's treatment of its patients, showing in the process that little has changed throughout the ages.Welcome to the Asylum. Are you committed?

Ten Days in a Mad-House


Nellie Bly - 1887
    In 1887, 23-year-old reporter Nellie Bly had herself committed to a New York City asylum for 10 days to expose the horrific conditions for 19th-century century mental patients.