Models of Madness shows that hallucinations and delusions are understandable reactions to life events and circumstances rather than symptoms of a supposed genetic predisposition or biological disturbance. International contributors: * critique the 'medical model' of madness * examine the dominance of the 'illness' approach to understanding madness from historical and economic perspectives * document the role of drug companies * outline the alternative to drug based solutions * identify the urgency and possibility of prevention of madness. Models of Madness promotes a more humane and effective response to treating severely distressed people that will prove essential reading for psychiatrists and clinical psychologists and of great interest to all those who work in the mental health service. This book forms part of the International Society for the Psychological Treatment of Psychoses series edited by Brian Martindale.

Degree of Madness is a story of psychological suspense centering on a misfit psychiatrist's descent into madness after he loses his wife and soul mate in a tragic auto accident on Christmas Eve. The slide into insanity is detailed through flashbacks and ongoing sessions with the one patient who does not listen to the psychiatrist's advice. The psychiatrist zeroes in on that one patient as a microcosm for an entire world he can not control and soon understands he must eliminate him. We see him become more deranged through interaction with the portrait of his late wife that he comes to believe dictates his every thought and move. The patient is portrayed as strong, gentle, and clearly sane. Other complicating factors include the psychiatrist's boss, a troubled man in search of redemption by playing crime fighter with the gay son he doesn't understand, as well as the lust interest in the gorgeous young intern who Zachary comes to see as replacement for his wife.

In the past five years Israel has mounted three major assaults on the 1.8 million Palestinians trapped behind its blockade of the Gaza Strip. Taken together, Operation Cast Lead (2008-9), Operation Pillar of Defense (2012), and Operation Protective Edge (2014), have resulted in the deaths of some 3,700 Palestinians. Meanwhile, a total of 90 Israelis were killed in the invasions. On the face of it, this succession of vastly disproportionate attacks has often seemed frenzied and pathological. Senior Israeli politicians have not discouraged such perceptions, indeed they have actively encouraged them. After the 2008-9 assault Israel’s then-foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, boasted, “Israel demonstrated real hooliganism during the course of the recent operation, which I demanded.” However, as Norman G. Finkelstein sets out in this concise, paradigm-shifting new book, a closer examination of Israel’s motives reveals a state whose repeated recourse to savage war is far from irrational. Rather, Israel’s attacks have been designed to sabotage the possibility of a compromise peace with the Palestinians, even on terms that are favorable to it. Looking also at machinations around the 2009 UN sponsored Goldstone report and Turkey’s forlorn attempt to seek redress in the UN for the killing of its citizens in the 2010 attack on the Gaza freedom flotilla, Finkelstein documents how Israel has repeatedly eluded accountability for what are now widely recognized as war crimes. Further, he shows that, though neither side can claim clear victory in these conflicts, the ensuing stalemate remains much more tolerable for Israelis than for the beleaguered citizens of Gaza. A strategy of mass non-violent protest might, he contends, hold more promise for a Palestinian victory than military resistance, however brave.

The "Kentucky Tragedy" was early America's best known true crime story. In 1825, Jereboam O. Beauchamp assassinated Kentucky attorney general Solomon P. Sharp. The murder, trial, conviction, and execution of the killer, as well as the suicide of his wife, Anna Cooke Beauchamp -- fascinated Americans. The episode became the basis of dozens of novels and plays composed by some of the country's most esteemed literary talents, among them Edgar Allan Poe and William Gilmore Simms. In Murder and Madness, Matthew G. Schoenbachler peels away two centuries of myth to provide a more accurate account of the murder. Schoenbachler also reveals how Jereboam and Anna Beauchamp shaped the meaning and memory of the event by manipulating romantic ideals at the heart of early American society. Concocting a story in which Solomon Sharp had seduced and abandoned Anna, the couple transformed a sordid murder -- committed because the Beauchamps believed Sharp to be spreading a rumor that Anna had had an affair with a family slave -- into a maudlin tale of feminine virtue assailed, honor asserted, and a young rebel's revenge. Murder and Madness reveals the true story behind the murder and demonstrates enduring influence of Romanticism in early America.

This exciting new book explores the history of major mental disorders by looking at a wide range of historical and contemporary figures that have experienced mental illness. It discusses changing perceptions of mental illness and the treatments used at different historical periods from antiquity to the present day via the biographical sketches.

Intrigued by history's list of "troubled geniuses,"Albert Rothenberg investigates how two such opposite conditions—outstanding creativity and psychosis—could coexist in the same individual. Rothenberg concludes that high-level creativity transcends the usual modes of logical thought—and may even superficially resemble psychosis. But he also discovers that all types of creative thinking generally occur in a rational and conscious frame of mind, not in a mystically altered or transformed state. Far from being the source—or the price—of creativity, Rothenberg discovers, psychosis and other forms of mental illness are actually hindrances to creative work. Disturbed writers and absent-minded professors make great characters in fiction, but Rothenberg has uncovered an even better story—the virtually infinite creative potential of healthy human beings.

It is 1966 in the Sierra Nevada backcountry. Allison Connors has been waiting years to carry out her plan. As darkness falls and a drunken beast emerges from their tent to relieve himself, Allison pushes him over a riverbank, hurls a rock at his head, and shoves him into the water. Although her father is finally dead, her vengeful journey has just begun. Thirty-three years later, the discovery of Cindy Ashaes remains in an Orange County high school time capsule heats up a decades-old cold case. After sheriffs department investigator Van Vanarsdale is assigned the case, he begins to unravel the mysterious 1972 disappearance of Cindy and her high school prom date. While following a twisting set of leads, Van soon discovers that Cindys death has something in common with several backpackers who disappeared during the 1960s and 1970s along Californias John Muir Trail. After enlisting help from psychology experts and two old backpackers, Van is led down a trail of madness straight to a suspect with a brilliant yet twisted mind. In this gripping mystery, a tenacious Orange County investigator assigned to a cold case must use unconventional methods to find a ruthless killer.