Product Description

Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion?, first published in 1990, made a very significant contribution to the debates on the concepts of schizophrenia and mental illness. These concepts remain both influential and controversial and this new updated second edition provides an incisive critical analysis of the debates over the last decade. As well as providing updated versions of the historical and scientific arguments against the concept of schizophrenia which formed the basis of the first edition, Boyle covers significant new material relevant to today's debates, including: The development of DSM-IV's version of 'schizophrenia' Analysis of social, psychological and linguistic processes which construct 'schizophrenia' as a reasonable version of reality A detailed critical evaluation of recent alternatives to the concept of schizophrenia Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion? demonstrates that the need for analysis and debate on these issues is as great as ever and that we need to question how we think about and manage what we call "madness".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #353202 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 376 pages

Review
'This book presents arguments so profound that you (the reader) will never be able to think of "schizophrenia" in the same way; it may even help you stop thinking about it at all.' - Tony Lavender, Director. Salomans Centre for Applied Social & Psychological Development 'This is a marvellous piece of scholarship. Boyle's analysis is relentless, exceedingly informative, and will undoubtedly be disturbing to all that find comfort in fuzzy thinking, conventional wisdom and unexamined evidence.' - Stuart A. Kirk, Professor and Marjorie Crump Chair, School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California

Customer Reviews

schizophrenia deconstructed
Mary Boyle's attempt at deconstructing the concept of schizophrenia is plausible. She points out that there is no firm biological or genetic evidence for its existence and that the concept has developed from Psychiatrists attempts to classify 'abnormal' behaviours and experiences. This book should be read alongside 'Making us Crazy,' which elucidates a lot of the key insights of this book a lot more clearly. Lay people and dislikers of Foucalt should steer clear of this book but for mental health professionals I think it will prove an important addition to the ongoing debate within psychiatry between those who emphasise the biological origins of mental illness and thus somatic therapies, and those who, like Mary Boyle, who see 'diseases' such as schizophrenia as social constructs better served by psycho-social interventions. Difficult and dense, but ultimately rewarding and thought-provoking.