Conversations in Critical Psychiatry

Oxford University Press, 2024

Cover image: René Magritte, The Battle of Argonne, 1959.

My book Conversations in Critical Psychiatry (OUP, 2024) brings together an edited selection of interviews published in the Psychiatric Times from 2019 to 2022, updated with new and previously unpublished material (including a foreword by Sir Robin Murray). These interviews explore critical and philosophical perspectives in psychiatry by engaging with prominent commentators within and outside the profession who have made meaningful criticisms of the status quo.

This volume is the culmination of my pre-Substack era intellectual development with regards to critical psychiatry.

eBook/Kindle has been published and is available for purchase. The paperback version will be published on September 20, 2024 in the United Kingdom (available for pre-order) and by the end of November 2024 in the United States.

Purchase on OUP website
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Book information page on my website

The volume includes interviews with many leading scholars such as Allen Frances, Anne Harrington, Paul McHugh, Nassir Ghaemi, Dainius Pūras, Joanna Moncrieff, Jonathan Shedler, Sanneke de Haan, Nev Jones, and Kenneth Kendler, among others. The discussions cover a wide array of philosophical, clinical, and scientific topics and present a sweeping overview of psychiatry’s relationship to critique. A detailed introductory essay ‘Psychiatry and the Critical Landscape’ offers a synthesis of themes and makes the case for mainstream psychiatry to embrace the critical tradition, while urging critical psychiatry to engage with a philosophically informed view of psychiatric science. Given the accessible and rigorous nature of these conversations, this book will be of interest to academics, clinicians, students, service users, and general readers alike.

Features of the book:

• Foreword by Sir Robin Murray

• A detailed introductory chapter, “Psychiatry and the Critical Landscape,” (along with commentary by Sandra Steingard)

• Edited and updated interviews (see list of interviewees below)

• Previously unpublished interviews (including mine)

• Every interview comes with reading recommendations to enhance educational value and facilitate use in teaching

• Relevant materials such as book reviews assembled in an appendix

Table of Contents

Foreword by Sir Robin Murray
Preface - Awais Aftab

1. Psychiatry and the Critical Landscape - Awais Aftab
2. Commentary on Integrative Critical Psychiatry and Psychopharmacology - Sandra Steingard

Psychiatry at Crossroads
3. Diagnosing Psychiatry: Allen Frances
4. Integrating Academic Inquiry and Reformist Activism in Psychiatry: Sandra Steingard and G. Scott Waterman
5. The Impoverishment of Psychiatric Knowledge: Giovanni Andrea Fava
6. Phenomenology, Power, and Polarization: Nev Jones

Disorder and Diversity
7. Skepticism of the Gentle Variety: Derek Bolton
8. The Neurodiversity Paradigm in Psychiatry: Robert Chapman
9. A Kantian Approach to Psychiatric Diagnosis: Sam Fellowes

History and Philosophy of Psychiatry
10. The Structure of Psychiatric Revolutions: Anne Harrington
11. Psychiatric Disorders as an Imperfect Community: Peter Zachar
12. Beyond Pragmatism in Psychiatry: S. Nassir Ghaemi

Enactivism and Psychiatry
13. Sense-Making and the Enactive Turn in Psychiatry: Sanneke de Haan
14. 3E Approach to Psychopathology: Kristopher Nielsen

Pluralistic and Integrative Psychiatry
15. Explanatory Methods in Psychiatry: Paul R. McHugh
16. Weaving Conceptual and Empirical Work in Psychiatry: Kenneth S. Kendler
17. From Classic and Critical to Integrative Psychiatry: Dan J. Stein

Psychiatric Institutions and Human Rights
18. Institutional Corruption and Social Justice in Psychiatry: Lisa Cosgrove
19. Global Psychiatry's Crisis of Values: Dainius Puras

Critical Psychiatry Network
20. Critical and Relational Psychiatry: Duncan Double
21. Psychiatry and the Human Condition: Joanna Moncrieff
22. Psychiatry and the Shores of Social Construction: Sami Timimi

Psychoanalysis
23. Psychoanalysis and the Re-Enchantment of Psychiatry: Jonathan Shedler

Psychiatry and the Medical Model
24. The Battle for the Soul of Psychiatry: Ronald W. Pies
25. The Medical Model in Theory and Practice: Ahmed Samei Huda
26. Psychiatry and the Long View: Paul Summergrad

Critical Neuropsychiatry
27. Social Constructionism Meets Aging and Dementia: Peter Whitehouse

Epilogue
28. The Politics of Conceptual and Critical Psychiatry: Awais Aftab interviewed by Richard G. T. Gipps and Nev Jones

Appendix:
a) Book reviews
b) Psychiatric Psychodrama

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Purchase on OUP website
Purchase on Amazon (US) (Kindle only; print forthcoming)
Purchase on Amazon (UK) (Kindle and print)

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