Madness Explained: Psychosis and Human Nature [Hardcover]

Richard P. Bentall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

Today most of us accept the consensus that madness is a medical condition - an illness that can be identified, classified and treated with drugs like any other. In this work, Richard Bentall shatters the myths that surround madness. He shows that there is no reassuring dividing line between mental health and mental illness. Severe mental disorders can no longer be reduced to brain chemistry, but must be understood psychologically, as part of normal behaviour and human nature. Bentall argues that we need a radically new way of thinking about psychosis and its treatment. Could it be that it is fear of madness, rather than the madness itself, that is our problem?

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Madness Explained is a substantial, yet highly accessible work. Full of insight and humanity, it deserves a wide readership.' -- The Sunday Times

'Will give readers a glimpse both of answers to their own problems, and to questions about how the mind works' -- The Independent Magazine

About the Author

Richard P. Bentall holds a Chair in Experimental Clinical Psychology at the University of Manchester. In 1989 he received the British Psychological Society's May Davidson Award for his contribution to the field of Clinical Psychology.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 656 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Global; 1 edition (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0713992492
• ISBN-13: 978-0713992496
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,056,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, well-researched treatise, November 1, 2006

By 

Karen Franklin "Forensic Psychologist" (El Cerrito, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Madness Explained (Paperback)

An outstanding, research-based treatise exploring the precise mechanisms of mental illness, and the thin line separating "normal" from "abnormal" functioning. Bentall meticulously debunks the labels upon which the dominant understanding of mental illness rely, such as "schizophrenia" and "manic depression." Experiences such as delusions and voices are things to which we are all vulnerable, and Bentall explains just why and how this is so. I really enjoyed the chapters exploring research on depression, mania, delusions, paranoia, and hallucinations.

This book is a dense 640 pages, so it is not for the casual reader. For a lighter reading on much the same topics, I would also recommend Bentall's co-authored text, Models of Madness: Psychological, Social, and Biological Approaches to Schizophrenia.

Postscript: Hot off the press is Bentall's new Doctoring the Mind: Is Our Current Treatment of Mental Illness Really Any Good?, which I highly recommend.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very human presentation of madness, January 18, 2005

By 

Steve Uhlig (Berlin, Germany) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Madness Explained: Psychosis and Human Nature (Hardcover)

I found this book very nice mainly because it demystifies the topic of madness. The book starts with a little of history about psychology, giving the reader enough context to build up a critical view of psychology. Throughout the book, the author tries to disentangle many biases in psychology and psychiatry to show that madness is not that bad, and that many behaviors we take as common are very close to that. The book is quite long and involved, i think it is its main drawback. However, it is worth reading as it provides a lot of examples of everyday behaviors that might easily lead to some form of madness. Personally, i cannot consider madness as being anything else tham simply a "socially annoying" thing. People considered as "mad" are sometimes less mad than supposedly normal persons, most people just don't want to try to understand them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's about time for a book like this!, April 26, 2008

By 

A. Wade - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Madness Explained (Paperback)

Informative and in-depth, without being dry, stuffy and jargon-y like many psychology/psychiatry books are. Don't be intimidated by the size of this book, it's a very easy read and well-written. The author even manages to inject some humor every now and then. It's a great explaination of the theories and history of schizophrenia, bipolar and unipolar, with an emphasis on schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.

The author goes into detail about the history of psychology and psychiatry, and names a lot of people I've never heard of. We've all heard of Freud, but what about Kraepelin, Bleuler, Laing or Mosher?
I also like that the author gives a nod to the antipsychiatry movement, and has no holds barred about discussing the history of facism, the Nazi regime in psychiatry, and abuse of psych ward patients in history.

The thing I like most about this book is it humanizes people we would otherwise be inclined to write off and discard because they are 'insane'. This should be required reading for anyone studying psychology or psychiatry.