Overview

This book examines the central role of contexts in understanding psychosis and distress. The contexts in which we all exist, historical, cultural, social, political, economic and interpersonal, shape and give meaning to our lives for good or for bad. Scientific research confirms how contexts of adversity such as trauma, abuse, and racism can lead to psychosis. Thomas argues that if we are to prioritise the role of values and ethics in mental health care we must engage actively with the contexts of patients' lives rather than focus on the endlessly fruitless search for the biological origins of distress and increasingly technological approaches to its management. After careful examination of the problems of psychiatric diagnosis, treatments, scientific models of madness, and neuroscience, Thomas goes on to demonstrate how contextual factors are central to mental distress. He proposes that the opportunities we have through narrative, to talk about our experiences and the contexts in which they are embedded, play a vital role in the task of making sense of our lives, in health, when distressed, or when overwhelmed by psychosis.

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9781906254728

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Wise, accessible and humane critique of psychiatry, by a psychiatrist. Essential reading for all those concerned with the future of psychiatry. Jacqui Dillon, researcher, campaigner, international speaker and trainer. Chair of Hearing Voices Network. Editor, Models of Madness (2013)

Author Information

Philip Thomas worked as a full-time consultant psychiatrist in the NHS for over twenty years. He left clinical practice in 2004 to write. He has published over 100 papers mostly in peer-reviewed journals, latterly in philosophy and its relevance to madness and society. He is well known for working in alliance with survivors of psychiatry, service users and community groups, nationally and internationally. Until recently he was chair of Sharing Voices Bradford, a community development project working with Black and Minority Ethnic communities. He was a founder member and until 2011 co-chair of the Critical Psychiatry Network. His first book, Dialectics of Schizophrenia was published by Free Association books in 1997. He has co-authored two other books, including 'Postpsychiatry' with Pat Bracken.

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