Health and Suffering in America: The Context and Content of Mental Health Care - Softcover

Fancher, Robert T.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0765805448 ISBN 13: 9780765805447

Publisher: Transaction Publishers, 2003

Synopsis

Health and Suffering in America analyzes how we came to see various forms of suffering as "mental illness," and argues that social and historical dynamics, not scientific discovery, gave us this notion. Robert Fancher argues that the beliefs of mental health professionals have less to do with science than with the professions' own values and ideologies. The image we have of mental health care hides vast realms of unexamined assumptions. In effect, the author maintains that "mental health" consists of mental health professionals' ideas about how people ought to live and act, not discoveries about human nature. The body of the book consists of detailed analyses and critiques of four infl uential American cultures of therapy: psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive therapy, and biological therapy. Fancher emphasizes how heavily their concepts and methods are determined by their cultures rather than by empirical data. Furthermore, our notions of mental health are not scientifi c discoveries, but moral ideals. Yet mental health workers often fail to understand this. As a result, they misunderstand their own authority and, worse, fail to subject their moral ideals to appropriate moral and cultural criticism. The new introduction by the author explores how the rise of managed health care coalesces with insistence on parity for mental health problems, supported by continuing claims that mental health care is science-based.

About this title

Review:

"It is hard to imagine an interested reader who would not want to argue furiously over one point or another. Nonetheless, it is equally hard to imagine the reader who wouldn't consider Mr. Fancher a worthy and engaging opponent."

"These analyses are both thorough and penetrating.... The appendix, 'Implications for Choosing or Changing a Therapist, ' is superb and would make this book worthwhile in and of itself."

--Richard Lamb, "JAMA"

"It is hard to imagine an interested reader who would not want to argue furiously over one point or another. Nonetheless, it is equally hard to imagine the reader who wouldn't consider Mr. Fancher a worthy and engaging opponent."

"--The New York Times Book Review"

"These analyses are both thorough and penetrating.... The appendix, 'Implications for Choosing or Changing a Therapist, ' is superb and would make this book worthwhile in and of itself."

--Richard Lamb, JAMA

"It is hard to imagine an interested reader who would not want to argue furiously over one point or another. Nonetheless, it is equally hard to imagine the reader who wouldn't consider Mr. Fancher a worthy and engaging opponent."

--The New York Times Book Review

"[A] major step toward clarification of the persisten, murky and wide-ranging issues that bedevil pyschotherapeutic theory and practice. . . . Highly recommended."

--Jerome D. Frank, The Journal of Nervous and Emotional Diseases

"These analyses are both thorough and penetrating.... The appendix, 'Implications for Choosing or Changing a Therapist, ' is superb and would make this book worthwhile in and of itself."

--Richard Lamb, JAMA

"It is hard to imagine an interested reader who would not want to argue furiously over one point or another. Nonetheless, it is equally hard to imagine the reader who wouldn't consider Mr. Fancher a worthy and engaging opponent."

--The New York Times Book Review

"[A] major step toward clarification of the persisten, murky and wide-ranging issues that bedevil pyschotherapeutic theory and practice. . . . Highly recommended."

--Jerome D. Frank, The Journal of Nervous and Emotional Diseases

-These analyses are both thorough and penetrating.... The appendix, 'Implications for Choosing or Changing a Therapist, ' is superb and would make this book worthwhile in and of itself.-

--Richard Lamb, JAMA

-It is hard to imagine an interested reader who would not want to argue furiously over one point or another. Nonetheless, it is equally hard to imagine the reader who wouldn't consider Mr. Fancher a worthy and engaging opponent.-

--The New York Times Book Review

-[A] major step toward clarification of the persisten, murky and wide-ranging issues that bedevil pyschotherapeutic theory and practice. . . . Highly recommended.-

--Jerome D. Frank, The Journal of Nervous and Emotional Diseases

About the Author:

Robert T. Fancher earned his doctorate in philosophy, with an emphasis on action theory, then trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, a trade he practiced in New York City for fourteen years. He has taught at Vanderbilt University, New York University, and The New School for Social Research. His writings have appeared in publications as diverse as Billiards Digest, The Washington Post, Education Week, and The Review of Metaphysics. Robert T. Fancher earned his doctorate in philosophy, with an emphasis on action theory, then trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, a trade he practiced in New York City for fourteen years. He has taught at Vanderbilt University, New York University, and The New School for Social Research. His writings have appeared in publications as diverse as Billiards Digest, The Washington Post, Education Week, and The Review of Metaphysics.

About this edition

• Publisher: Transaction Publishers
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0765805448
• ISBN 13: 9780765805447
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 380