Sorting out fact from fiction, one of the world's leading experts presents an absorbing account of what is actually know about the complex subject of schizophrenia.

Researchers still haven't found the genes that underlie schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and autism; perhaps they do not exist. A genetic researcher in psychiatry and psychology urges we return our focus to family, social, and political environments as the sources of psychological distress.

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

It’s the American dream—unfettered freedom to follow our ambitions, to forge our identities, to become self-made. But what if our culture of limitless self-fulfillment is actually making millions desperately ill? One of our leading interpreters of modernity and nationalism, Liah Greenfeld argues that we have overlooked the connection between egalitarian society and mental illness. Intellectually fearless, encompassing philosophy, psychology, and history, Mind, Modernity, Madness challenges the most cherished assumptions about the blessings of living in a land of the free. Modern nationalism, says Greenfeld, rests on bedrock principles of popular sovereignty, equality, and secularism. Citizens of the twenty-first century enjoy unprecedented freedom to become the authors of their personal destinies. Empowering as this is, it also places them under enormous psychic strain. They must constantly appraise their identities, manage their desires, and calibrate their place within society. For vulnerable individuals, this pressure is too much. Training her analytic eye on extensive case histories in manic depression and schizophrenia, Greenfeld contends that these illnesses are dysfunctions of selfhood caused by society’s overburdening demands for self-realization. In her rigorous diagnosis, madness is a culturally constituted malady. The culminating volume of Greenfeld’s nationalism trilogy, Mind, Modernity, Madness is a tour de force in the classic tradition of Émile Durkheim—and a bold foray into uncharted territory. Often counter-intuitive, always illuminating, Mind, Modernity, Madness presents a many-sided view of humanity, one that enriches our deepest understanding of who we are and what we aspire to be.

This accessible volume sets an ambitious goal: to help people better understand the nature of mental illness. The term itself is a problem for most who believe, consciously or not, that individuals have both a mind and a body. Ronald Chase is interested in the roots of this thinking about mental illness, and finds it in philosophical dualism, famously promoted by René Descartes in the seventeenth century. Chase believes this perspective contributes to the stigma associated with mental illness, and argues for a different conceptual understanding. He describes and evaluates several alternatives, including behaviorism, physicalism, and functionalism. He also explores whether mental states can be reduced to brain states, and whether mental events cause things to happen. His provocative answers suggest mind-body dualism is outdated and misleading, and some version of physicalism is more likely to help us understand mental illness. Chase presents a concise outline of the science of mental illness, with a focus on schizophrenia, noting that faulty brain development is the fundamental cause of major mental illness. Using detailed, but non-technical language, Chase describes how genes combine with environmental influences to produce changes in brain structures and functions. Chase insists on the need to understand mental illness as a biological phenomenon, yet accepts that people use mental terms and concepts in everyday discourse. This scientifically sound challenge to major assumptions currently in vogue with respect to mental illness will initiate a new dialogue on the subject. It will be important to academics, psychiatric professionals, and those affected by mental illness—victims, family members, and caregivers.

Risk Factors for Psychosis: Paradigms, Mechanisms, and Prevention combines the related, but disparate research endeavors into a single text that considers all risk factors for psychosis, including biological, psychological and environmental factors. The book also introduces the ethics and current treatment evidence that attempts to ameliorate risk or reduce the number of individuals with risk factors developing a psychotic disorder. Finally, the book highlights new research paradigms that will further enhance the field in the future. Psychotic disorders affect more than 50 million people worldwide, creating a devastating effect on lives and causing major financial and emotional impact on families and on society as a whole. The search for risk factors for psychosis has developed rapidly over the past decades, invigorated by changes in the thinking about the malleability and treatability of psychotic disorders. The paradigms for investigating psychosis risk have developed, often in parallel, but there has been no book to date that has summarized and synthesized the current approaches. - Integrates research from biological, psychological and environmental factors into a single resource - Offers insight into at-risk paradigms, biomarkers, and the current state of research on treatment option for psychosis - Presents a holistic and dynamic look at risk syndromes and how they can be measured through neuroimaging, neuropsychology and other methods

Psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are known to be highly heritable. Despite decades of research, however, the genetic variations conferring susceptibility to these illnesses have yet to be identified. Such genetic variations most likely produce abnormalities of brain structure and function from which the clinical features of psychosis emerge. The Maudsley Family Study of Psychosis investigates the genetically produced markers of abnormal brain structure and function (‘intermediate phenotypes’) which underlie the clinical syndrome of schizophrenia, and more recently bipolar disorder. In this book, key findings of this important research program, and their implications for this field, are discussed in detail. Contributors outline research examining brain structure and functioning in patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected first degree relatives, incorporating detailed clinical assessments, magnetic resonance imaging, electrophysiology, eye tracking measures and neuropsychology. This book provides an improved understanding of illness pathways and potential scope for intervention in order to better manage and prevent psychotic disorders and will be of interest to academics and clinicians in the field.

Over its two editions, The New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry has come to be regarded as one of the most popular and trusted standard psychiatry texts among psychiatrists and trainees. Bringing together 146 chapters from the leading figures in the discipline, it presents a comprehensive account of clinical psychiatry, with reference to its scientific basis and to the patient's perspective throughout. The New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry, Third Edition has been extensively re-structured and streamlined to keep pace with the significant developments that have taken place in the fields of clinical psychiatry and neuroscience since publication of the second edition in 2009. The new edition has been updated throughout to include the most recent versions of the two main classification systems—-the DSM-5 and the ICD-11—-used throughout the world for the diagnosis of mental disorders. In the years since publication of the first edition, many new and exciting discoveries have occurred in the biological sciences, which are having a major impact on how we study and practise psychiatry. In addition, psychiatry has fostered closer ties with philosophy, and these are leading to healthy discussions about how we should diagnose and treat mental illness. This new edition recognises these and other developments. Throughout, accounts of clinical practice are linked to the underlying science, and to the evidence for the efficacy of treatments. Physical and psychological treatments, including psychodynamic approaches, are covered in depth. The history of psychiatry, ethics, public health aspects, and public attitudes to psychiatry and to patients are all given due attention.