Understanding Troubled Minds: A Guide to Mental Illness and Its Treatment

the long version

Most of us take our mental health for granted. But when confronted by mental illness in our family, our friends or ourselves, even the most competent among us is likely to become bewildered. UNDERSTANDING TROUBLED MINDS guides us calmly and authoritatively through the full range of mental illnesses and available treatments. It deals with particular patterns of illness in women, children and the elderly. Stressing the value of partnership between psychiatrists, patients and their families, it tells us just what it is that psychiatrists and fellow health-workers do. A sense of hope and optimism prevails. The author, an eminent academic psychiatrist of long practical experience, emphasizes that great strides are being made in the treatment of mental illness. Woven through his text, in acknowledgement of the complexity of human nature, are stories of real people. This balanced, up-to-date book is warm-hearted and thoroughly readable. It will increase both our practical knowledge and our deeper understanding of mental illness.