1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910254677503321

Autore

McNally Kieran

Titolo

A Critical History of Schizophrenia / / by Kieran McNally

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London : , : Palgrave Macmillan UK : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2016

ISBN

1-137-45681-7

Edizione

[1st ed. 2016.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (IX, 269 p.)

Collana

Palgrave Studies in the Theory and History of Psychology, , 2946-2460

Classificazione

PSY007000PSY015000PSY018000PSY022050

Disciplina

616.89/8

Soggetti

Psychology

Social sciences - History

Clinical psychology

Critical psychology

Science - History

Psychology, Pathological

Psychiatry

History of Psychology

Clinical Psychology

Critical Psychology

History of Science

Psychopathology

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Sommario/riassunto

Schizophrenia was psychiatry's arch concept of madness in the twentieth century. However, it was a concept that was both surprisingly problematic and contentious. This book explores schizophrenia's instability, as the concept changed across the 20th century. It moves beyond sensational accounts of kids on LSD and split personalities, to detail schizophrenia's historically problematic definition, diagnosis, and symptom profile. In doing so, Kieran McNally documents the social uses of the concept, its regional variations, and its fluctuating subtypes. And finally, the book explains how, and why, North American psychiatry sought to improve the concept in the Diagnostic and



Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), by introducing group sanctioned operational definitions. This book reveals a tradition of critical unease towards the concept of schizophrenia and it reveals that criticism of the concept was consistently voiced by many leading schizophrenia researchers - and not just by 'anti-psychiatrists'. It becomes clear that at no stage in its history was schizophrenia thought to be beyond improvement.