I believe strictly recent insanity in very many cases, is radically curable under the prompt, persistent, and united use of medical and moral means. These, to be efficient, demand individualized application, i. e., that same immediate, close, and sharp personal service which the general practitioner necessarily gives to the early stages of typhus, diphtheria, cholera, etc. Individualized treatment is called for in insanity as imperatively as in the case of acute forms of other physical disease. The form of treatment is different according as the practitioner is hopefully working for a cure in an acute case, or as in some chronic case of long standing, he is simply administering palliation and general care. The first requires his personal and persistent attention, the second may be treated in a general way and may be committed to others. This power, essential to the largest success, is limited, as in all individual efforts, by number. Applicable to the few, it cannot be extended to the many. While here and there it may reach one in a crowd, the general result proves the limitation. I not only discuss the treatment of chronic insanity, but its prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved)

For an endeavour that is largely based on conversation it may seem obvious to suggest that psychotherapy is discursive. After all, therapists and clients primarily use talk, or forms of discourse, to accomplish therapeutic aims. However, talk or discourse has usually been seen as secondary to the actual business of therapy - a necessary conduit for exhanging information between therapist and client, but seldom more. Psychotherapy primarily developed by mapping particular experiential domains in ways responsive to human intervention. Only recently though has the role that discourse plays been recognized as a focus in itself for analysis and intervention. Discursive Perspectives in Therapeutic Practice presents an overview of discursive perspectives in therapy, along with an account of their conceptual underpinnings. The book starts by setting out the case for a discursive and relational approach to therapy by justaposing it to the tradition that that leads to the diagnostic approach of the DSM-V and medical psychiatry. It then presents a thorough review of a range of innovative discursive methods, each presented by an authority in their respective area. The book shows how discursive therapies can help people construct a better sense of their world, and move beyond the constraints caused by the cultural preconceptions, opinions, and values the client has about the world. The book makes a unique contribution to the philosophy and psychiatry literature in examining both the philosophical bases of discursive therapy, whilst also showing how discursive perspectives can be applied in real therapeutic situations. The book will be of great value and interest to psychotherapists and psychiatrists wishing to understand, explore, and apply these innovative techniques.