Customer Reviews

Psychopathology: Foundations for a Contemporary Understanding

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book challenges what psychopathology should actually reflect upon in a contemporary and academic way. What graduates need is not yet another regurgitation of undergrad set conservative texts, but a series of chapters just like this that aims to lead the therapists of tommorrow towards challenging what we think we already know and making up our own minds on essential issues of mental health.

As a professor of psychology in a Master's program (which focuses on training people to become Psychological Examiners), I use this text in my "Psychopathology" course. Although I supplement the material heavily in the sections dealing with child psychopathology, I've found this to be a nice introduction to psychopathology at the graduate level, or even for an advanced undergraduate class. I don't think that the language used is too "doctoral" (as stated in one review on this site), but you do have to be fairly well versed in psychological science to appreciate a large amount of the etiology and biology aspects of the chapters.

Overall, I would recommend this book as a nice "starter" for someone interested in psychopathology, although for a graduate course an instructor would definitely have to supplement the readings with extra material.

Most textbooks of this nature tend to be a regurgitation of the current DSM. The difference with this one is that it looks at psychopathology from many viewpoints and within a range of behaviors. This will stimulate your thinking about what is considered normal and abnormal. This text is good for seasoned professionals who do not want the same 'ol, same 'ol.

Some comments below complain that the vocabulary is too advanced- well, that may be true but personally that's what I want in an upper-level textbook!

Very accurate and a true asset to any student or mental health professional. Highly recommended!

I am a retired psychologist-psychoanalyst, my specialization since 1964: schizophrenia. I bought the Maddux book as the title sounded innocent enough, & the publisher is quite reputable. I read the chapter on schizophrenia, a subject on which I have written a book, which I hope will be published soon. I didn't throw up, but maybe would have felt better if I had.
Schizophrenia, it is announced at the outset, is an incurable brain disease, even though there are no physiological changes in the brain differentiable from those seen in PTSD. The treatment of choice, it is further reported, is the latest (therefore most expensive) medications, with additional meds to muffle the side effects of the first when required. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is also recommended (a wonderful term, you can tell just what it means by what it omits: feeling, & meaning. What if a patient appears cured? Do not be fooled! Sly deviants that they are, they are only in remission. The bibliography was barely believable. Few citations were much over a decade old, I suppose this to show us how up to date we all are now; the giants of our field over the last 100 years were almost totally absent, as if they had never been at all. This is cutting-edge 1880s psychology, together with the contemporary managed care-big pharmaceutical (they're the folks who visit hospitals & distribute the latest editions of textbooks they approve of to psychiatric residents free, with other perks)-biological psychiatry coalition. The book is addressed to the New Clinicians, who treat insurance policies, not patients, who provide the personnel for the "industrialization of psychotherapy" advertised by managed care companies, maximizing thruput of patient material through the hospital industrial system with maximal efficiency, minimal cost (to themselves), minimal time, minimal expenditure of resources, then take the money and run, cagily to invest it. A sad testimonial to how far our field has fallen, and how fast. I read with a pencil, so I couldn't return it, so I took it downstairs to the garbage room. I couldn't bear to have it in my home.

This book was one of the texts in my Graduate Class in Psychopathology, I found that the vocabulary was appropriately advanced for the level of education that it was imparting, that the information was sufficient to provide more than just foundation level learning and encourages the reader to draw conclusions and speculate on future research opportunities in each of the areas covered. I would recommend this to anyone with at least an undergraduate foundation in Psychology as a way to broaden their understanding of psychopathology.

This book was required reading to supplement Barlow in an Advanced Psychopathology class in the doctoral program I attend. The only reason we are using the book is because this is the professors first time teaching the class. As a class we have decided that every chapter we studied in this book is a colossal waste of time. It is used as a basis to communicate the contributing authors biases and personal viewpoints on the field of psychology and specifically the current diagnostic system.

It is a poorly written biased collection of individual's opinions. If you must buy it, I would recommend sharing a copy with a classmate, as it is not worth keeping after the class commences.

While this textbook may be up to date with current research, that is about all the positive I could note about it. They don't even define psychopathology in the first chapter. If you are a professor, find a different text book.

Book arrived on time and was shipped out immediately! It was practically brand spanking new with little to no high lightingo only which was perfect even on the pages for me to study by!! So proud that I chose this seller and recieved such a deal! Even got an A for the class!! Perfect holiday delight! =)

I am a graduate student working on a masters degree in counseling. One of my classes requires this book as our textbook. The professor spoke highly of this book. Now, I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'm certainly not the dullest; I found this reading to be much too doctoral in its vocabulary. Frequently, I had to look up the definitions of words just so I could understand what in the world I was reading. For a "foundations" book, I would like to see/read one that is written on a level that could be understood by someone other than an experienced clinical psychologist or Ph.D.