NOT SO ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY: A PRAGMATIC VIEW OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Each year, tens of thousands of students across the country enroll in abnormal psychology courses. The majority are taught that. mental illnesses are genetically determined malfunctions in the brain, that the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 is the primary means of diagnosis and assessment, and that psychotropic medications and cognitive-behavioral interventions are the only scientifically appropriate tools for symptom management. In this warm and deeply personal text, Ronald B. Miller questions this approach. Drawing from professional experience and personal search for meaning. Miller takes readers on a historical tour of alternative conceptualizations and treatments for psychological problems. Across a comprehensive range of mental illnesses-including developmental disorders, anxiety, depression, personality disorders, and schizophrenia-he reviews theoretical bases, methods of diagnosis and assessment, and treatments that have long produced successful outcomes yet have too often been denigrated or ignored by proponents of the dominant approaches to mental health care. A much-needed critical examination of the reigning orthodoxies, such as our tendency to pathologize psychological difficulties and to downplay or ignore subjective experiences of human suffering, this text offers a pragmatic and compassionate approach that will revolutionize readers' understanding of abnormal psychology.