Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good
James Davies
Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good arises from James Davies's many years working within and researching the psychiatric industry. The book investigates three medical mysteries that initially baffled him: why has psychiatry become the fastest growing medical specialism in history when it still has the poorest curative success? Why are psychiatric drugs now more widely prescribed than almost any other medical drugs in history, despite their dubious efficacy? And why does psychiatry, without solid scientific justification, keep expanding the number of mental disorders it believes to exist - from 106 in 1952, to 374 today? The answers are not reassuring.
Book Details:
- Author: James Davies
- Published Year: 2013
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Rights Sold
- UK: Icon
- US: Pegasus
- Finland: Basam Books
- Norway: Abstrakt Forlag AS
- Spain: Captain Swing
- Saudi Arabia: Sumo
James Davies
James Davies gained his PhD in social and medical anthropology from the University of Oxford in 2006. He is also a qualified psychotherapist, who has worked in organisations such as the NHS. James is a Reader in social anthropology and mental health at the University of Roehampton, London. He has published four academic books for presses like Stanford University Press and Routledge, and has delivered talks at many universities such as Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Brown, CUNY (New York), and The New School (New York). James has also written for The Times, The Guardian, The New Scientist and Salon....
More about James Davies
Book Reviews
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"
...a new book that should be read by every doctor, and also by everyone in politics and the media, not to mention any concerned citizen. The book, Cracked – Why Psychiatry Is Doing More Harm Than Good, by James Davies, published by Icon, is calmly and clearly written in straightforward layman’s English."
Mail on Sunday -
"Davies book is a potent polemic."
Sunday Times -
"An eye-opening and persuasive work."
Publishers Weekly -
"(A) diligent study."
The Financial Times -
"If, in the world of psychiatry, the DSM is Holy Scripture, Cracked is set to become a heretical text."
Robert Crampton The Times Magazine -
"Disturbing and uncompromising."
Kirkus -
"This thought-provoking book will make people think twice before sitting on a psychiatrist’s couch or filling a prescription. "
Booklist -
"This is a profoundly disturbing look at the world of Big Pharma and shadowy truth: drug companies have been allowed not to publish studies which don't support their research; placebos have proved as effective as Prozac. This is an important book for anyone who has any interest in mental health"
Daily Mail -
"Chilling reading."
Will Self, Guardian -
"Builds a disturbing picture of a profession that is in thrall to pharmaceutical companies."
Michael Mosley, BBC Focus -
"A well-written book...a positive contribution to the debate about whether psychiatry can become a more open practice."
Therapy Today -
"An engrossing book, full of interviews with patients and professionals."
GP Magazine -
"I couldn't put the book down. It is totally engaging, as controversial as it is compelling, and as erudite as it is enjoyable...The book deeserves to be a bestseller and should be read by everry mental health professional."
International Review of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis -
"This is an excellent book...(it) careens, almost literally, from one psychiatric outrage to the next...I strongly recommend this book."
Behaviourism and Mental Health -
"This is a very well-written book-intellectually sound, but written in an accessible way...It should be read by all mental health professionals, by all politicians and policy makers charged with shaping future mental health provision"
Social Justice Solutions -
"You will be illuminated and often shocked and certainly made to think more about how you view the children in your care. Every teacher should read it."
International School Magazine