BOOK RECOMMENDATION: "What is Mental Illness?"

12/12/10.

Richard J. McNally, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, is the author of just published (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011) "what is mental illness?"

In his first chapter, Professor McNally reviews recent research indicating that mental illness is a public health crises, affecting nearly 50% of Americans, according to a study from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, a study involving psychiatric interviews with a sample of more than nine thousand adults.

Not everybody agrees with these staggering results suggesting that the world is an outpatient psychiatric clinic. Paul McHugh, a former chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University, remarked, "Fifty percent of Americans mentally impaired--are you kidding me? Pretty soon we'll have a syndrome for short, fat Irish guys with a Boston accent, and I'll be mentally ill."

Professor McNally's book consists of eight chapters, each chapter asks a question:

1.  An Epidemic of Madness?

2.  Are We Pathologizing Everyday Life?

3.  Can Evolutionary Psychology Make Sense of Mental Disorder?

4.  Psychopathology as Adaptation?

5.  Does Society Create (Some) Mental Disorders?

6,  Is It in Our Genes?

7.  Do Mental Disorders Differ by Kind or Degree?

8.  So What is Mental Illness Anyway?

Professor McNally offers some hope to reduce the confusion over the nature of psychiatric disorders and improve our understanding of the mind and caring for patients.