This is Madness

Craig Newnes is editor of The Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy (formerly Changes), and a comissioning editor and author for the PCCS Books Critical Psychology series. Prior to his retirement he was Director of Psychological Therapies for Shropshire. He has a life time commitment to the NHS and is an outspoken critic of the hypocrisy, self interest, confusion and downright lies which characterise so much of the practise of psychiatry and psychology. He believes that unhappiness is a form of heresy and most of the misery for which people seek help is only amenable to alleviation through changes in their material lives. Guy Holmes works in the NHS as a clinical psychologist in Shropshire. He has published over 40 academic articles in areas as diverse as: the medicalisation of distress; psychiatric medication; patients' councils; service users' experiences of and views on mental health services; sexual abuse of males; community psychology; and various aspects of groupwork. Cailzie Dunn is also a clinical psychologist working in Shropshire (UK). She co-ran an Alternatives to Psychiatry course in Shropshire in 1997. She is particularly interested in talking to people about experiences they have had which have been elsewhere diagnosed as psychotic symptoms, with the aim of trying to find an explanation which is more meaningful and helpful to the person.Cailzie Dunn is a clinical psychologist working for South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare Foundation NHS Trust. She works with adults involved with the Community Mental Health Team in Shrewsbury.She co-ran Alternatives to Psychiatry courses in Shropshire and was a co-editor of This is Madness: A critical look at psychiatry and the future of mental health services (PCCS Books) and This is Madness Too: Critical perspectives on mental health services (PCCS Books). She is particularly interested in helping people with the effects of complex trauma.

The editors of This is Madness have achieved a rare blend for a book comprising different and disparate authors ... Where the book really hits the target is in its highly successful attempt to merge user views with the opinions and views of mental health professionals ... I will be recommending it to my students in 1999. Steve Baldwin, Changes, Vol. 17, No. 3, Autumn 1999. This is Madness is clearly written and avoids jargon; it will be accessible to a wide variety of readers within and without the mental health system. It will be especially useful to persons involved in efforts to reform community mental health systems and to those developing psychosocial supports and services as an alternative to biomedical, coercive treatment and "care". This is Madness would also make an excellent reader for students at all levels in courses concerned with community mental health, combining critique of the psychiatric system on many levels with concrete exploration of the kinds of meaningful alternatives which can hope to be empowering and supportive of recovery in more than name. Michal Mc Cubbin PhD, Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit, University of Regina, Canada, in Ethical Human Sciences and Services, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2001.

• Psychiatry in context Histories of psychiatry Craig Newnes Social inequalities and mental health Jennie Williams Racism and mental health Nimisha Patel and Iyabo A. Fatimilehin What psychiatry does Diagnosis Mary Boyle Drugs David Crepaz-Keay ECT: The facts psychiatry declines to mention Katy Arscott Do families cause schizophrenia'? Revisiting a taboo subject Lucy Johnstone Psychiatric hospitals and patients' councils Marese Hudson Alternatives and alliances Hearing voices and the politics of oppression Ron Coleman Collaborative conversations Peter Hulme User involvement in mental health service development David Pilgrim and Lesley Hitchman The service user/survivor movement Peter Campbell Survivor controlled alternatives to psychiatric services Vivien Lindow Beyond psychiatry The duty of community care: The Wokingham MIND crisis house Pam Jenkinson Promoting community resources Janet Bostock, Valerie Noble and Rachel Winter The role of education in the lives of people with mental health difficulties Tracey Austin Green approaches to occupational and income needs in preventing chronic dependency Brian Davey The future of mental health services Craig Newnes and Guy Holmes