Abnormalities Of Personality: Within and Beyond the Realm of Treatment [Hardcover]

Michael H. Stone (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393701271 | ISBN-13: 978-0393701272 | Publication Date: November 17, 1993 | Edition: 1

The author presents his subject with a breadth not found in other texts, reaching from those individuals with mildly annoying traits to incurable psychopaths.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Norton; 1 edition (November 17, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393701271
• ISBN-13: 978-0393701272
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael H. Stone, MD (New York, NY) is professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is the author of ten books, most recently Personality Disorders: Treatable and Untreatable, and over two hundred professional articles and book chapters. He is also the host of Discovery Channel's former series Most Evil and has been featured in the New York Times, Psychology Today, the Christian Science Monitor, CNN, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, the New York Post, the London Times, the BBAC, and Newsday, among many other media outlets.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a classic., January 6, 2003

By 

Pozzotti (St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abnormalities Of Personality: Within and Beyond the Realm of Treatment (Hardcover)

I'm writing this review because the only other customer review gave it a one star rating. Clearly, the book did not meet that reviewer's needs.

I do, however, want to alert graduate students and teachers and mental health professionals to Stone's book. Published in 1993, it is now far too old to be a primary text on personality disorders. And the fact that it uses DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria makes it even less palatable to students.

But I thought that the book was superb when it was published, and I still recommend it to graduate students in clinical psychology for its discussion of psychopathy and of personality traits that are difficult to treat.

Graduate students in clinical psychology should first learn about Robert Hare's work on psychopathy, but Stone's book is a great resource.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A compendium of abnormalities, June 21, 2003

By 

Sam Vaknin (Skopje, Macedonia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Abnormalities Of Personality: Within and Beyond the Realm of Treatment (Hardcover)

It is rare to find a scholarly textbook which contrasts orthodox points of view with heterodoxy. Stone seeks to debunk myths regarding the etiology of disorders and the omnipotence of treatment modalities. He also, mercifully, refocuses on the patient (client), his personality, and his presenting traits - rather than on the nebulous and abstract construct of "personality disorder". Though somewhat outdated clinically - it relies on the DSM-III-R published in 1987 - it is still a refreshing new look at the topic, a decade after its publication. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited".

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crisp, cogent a pleasure to read, September 30, 2008

By 

Psych MD "Psych MD" (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abnormalities Of Personality: Within and Beyond the Realm of Treatment (Hardcover)

I am still sad that I finished this book and I miss it when I am stumbling through other books written by people who clearly just do not have the clarity of mind and the gift of expression that Michael Stone does.
The book is a fair, reasoned, elaborately thought out and articulated treatment of a subject that most people in mental health fail to understand, and fail to realize the scope and impact of.
In this day of name therapies (CBT, CBASP, DBT, ACT) Michael Stone cuts through the nonsense and delivers a balanced, empirically grounded, scientifically valid and deeply understood descrpition of personality disorders, personality traits and their impact on treatment, without faddishness or resorting to un-rigorous evangelism.

It would be a great read for anyone in the mental health treatment field, for it has an appreciation for something that the mental health field is sorely lacking in these days of cookbook therapies and "therapists" with less and less training; accurate diagnosis and nuanced approach.