Chemically Imbalanced

Chemically Imbalanced PDF Author: Joseph E. Davis
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022668671X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
A study of how ordinary people deal with everyday problems through self-mastery and mental health care practices. Everyday suffering—those conditions or feelings brought on by trying circumstances that arise in everyone’s lives—is something that humans have grappled with for millennia. But the last decades have seen a drastic change in the way we approach it. In the past, a person going through a time of difficulty might keep a journal or see a therapist, but now the psychological has been replaced by the biological: instead of treating the heart, soul, and mind, we take a pill to treat the brain. Chemically Imbalanced is a field report on how ordinary people dealing with common problems explain their suffering, how they’re increasingly turning to the thin and mechanistic language of the “body/brain,” and what these encounters might tell us. Drawing on interviews with people dealing with struggles such as underperformance in school or work, grief after the end of a relationship, or disappointment with how their life is unfolding, Joseph E. Davis reveals the profound revolution in consciousness that is underway. We now see suffering as an imbalance in the brain that needs to be fixed, usually through chemical means. This has rippled into our social and cultural conversations, and it has affected how we, as a society, imagine ourselves and envision what constitutes a good life. Davis warns that what we envision as a neurological revolution, in which suffering is a mechanistic problem, has troubling and entrapping consequences. And he makes the case that by turning away from an interpretive, meaning-making view of ourselves, we thwart our chances to enrich our souls and learn important truths about ourselves and the social conditions under which we live. Praise for Chemically Imbalanced “Chemically Imbalanced is an excellent addition to the works in social sciences and humanities that examine the distress of ordinary Americans from the second half of the twentieth century onward, a period when commercialized pills and the psychology-based notion of self-improvement entered the minds of Americans.” —Metascience “Chemically Imbalanced raises important questions, offers new insight into the power and reach of the biomedical model and neurobiological thinking, and I highly recommend it. I encourage readers to assign it, especially in graduate-level mental health and illness classes—or any class looking for a discussion on people’s experiences with suffering and the broad impacts of biomedical thinking and treatment.” —Social Forces

Chemically Imbalanced

Chemically Imbalanced PDF Author: Joseph E. Davis
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022668671X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book

Book Description
A study of how ordinary people deal with everyday problems through self-mastery and mental health care practices. Everyday suffering—those conditions or feelings brought on by trying circumstances that arise in everyone’s lives—is something that humans have grappled with for millennia. But the last decades have seen a drastic change in the way we approach it. In the past, a person going through a time of difficulty might keep a journal or see a therapist, but now the psychological has been replaced by the biological: instead of treating the heart, soul, and mind, we take a pill to treat the brain. Chemically Imbalanced is a field report on how ordinary people dealing with common problems explain their suffering, how they’re increasingly turning to the thin and mechanistic language of the “body/brain,” and what these encounters might tell us. Drawing on interviews with people dealing with struggles such as underperformance in school or work, grief after the end of a relationship, or disappointment with how their life is unfolding, Joseph E. Davis reveals the profound revolution in consciousness that is underway. We now see suffering as an imbalance in the brain that needs to be fixed, usually through chemical means. This has rippled into our social and cultural conversations, and it has affected how we, as a society, imagine ourselves and envision what constitutes a good life. Davis warns that what we envision as a neurological revolution, in which suffering is a mechanistic problem, has troubling and entrapping consequences. And he makes the case that by turning away from an interpretive, meaning-making view of ourselves, we thwart our chances to enrich our souls and learn important truths about ourselves and the social conditions under which we live. Praise for Chemically Imbalanced “Chemically Imbalanced is an excellent addition to the works in social sciences and humanities that examine the distress of ordinary Americans from the second half of the twentieth century onward, a period when commercialized pills and the psychology-based notion of self-improvement entered the minds of Americans.” —Metascience “Chemically Imbalanced raises important questions, offers new insight into the power and reach of the biomedical model and neurobiological thinking, and I highly recommend it. I encourage readers to assign it, especially in graduate-level mental health and illness classes—or any class looking for a discussion on people’s experiences with suffering and the broad impacts of biomedical thinking and treatment.” —Social Forces

Chemically Imbalanced

Chemically Imbalanced PDF Author: Wade Brill
Publisher: Xulon Press
ISBN: 1602666474
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Brill confronts the myth that depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders are the result of chemical imbalances or other physical causes. He provides a biblical explanation for these disorders and shows the path to freedom that is available to all who are alive in Christ. (Christian)

The Chemical Imbalance Delusion

The Chemical Imbalance Delusion PDF Author: Daniel R Berger II
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780997607772
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
"In The Chemical Imbalance Delusion, Berger presents a fresh and simplified navigational tool on a topic that is often overwhelming to those who have been told they have a chemical imbalance. This book is also a helpful resource for the caretakers, friends, families and others in a relationship with the impacted patient. For me, The Chemical Imbalance Delusion is a book I truly feel that anyone can pick up, read, and learn more about a subject we in the pharmaceutical industry are so passionate about, which is important. It has been my experience, that people who are told that their problems are caused by a chemical imbalance are left searching for answers, understanding, paths forward, help, and hope. This book serves as a well-presented guide and educational tool to help navigate such hardships and discover vital answers." - Katy Sorrells, CQA, Pharmaceutical Quality Engineer"The Nation and its mental disorders are controlled by psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies too often motivated by greed and maintained by pseudoscience. Millions of doses of poison are being sold and pushed on the public-though these chemicals are promoted as necessary medicines. Our only hope is to accept the truths being declared by people like Dr. Daniel Berger who beat the drum of truth loud enough for us to hear. Berger is a voice in the wilderness that must be heard, and this book, The Chemical Imbalance Delusion, needs to be read by everyone." - Joseph M. Cummins, DVM, PHD, Researcher and Pharmacologist"I am indebted to Dr. Berger for his exposé of the engineered deception of Big Pharma and its complicit professionals. I, too, was duped by the supposed pathophysiology of psychiatric disease based on the 'science' of neurotransmitter disequilibrium. While we have been able to quantify dysfunction in other organ symptoms, we as medical professionals and scientists have failed to do the same in the discipline of the mind and the brain. In The Chemical Imbalance Delusion, Dr. Berger has unraveled the morass of this deception steeped in the pursuit of profit and carried out in the name of pride. This information is integral to our care of the psyche/soul of our patients. He has shown that we can no longer, in good conscience, reach into our black box and judicially prescribe medicines that have no good evidence of efficacy and, in fact, cause significant harm to our patients." - Atam Abbi, MD "Dr. Berger's book is a great compilation of undeniable evidence that shows just how misleading the present standard of care is. We, as health care providers, canonly help people if we know and propagate the truth: the pill is NOT the solution. The mind must be renewed! It can be so harmful to take pills for decades and wrongly believe that medication melts away inner conflicts and/or fixes harmful or destructive behaviors. I am grateful to have read The Chemical Imbalance Delusion, as it clarifies so much of what I had suspected all these years; this discovery makes me enthusiastic, since it also encourages me to share my faith in the Lord who alone renews the mind." - Christina Biester, MD and Clinical Supervisor

Understanding Genetics

Understanding Genetics PDF Author: Genetic Alliance
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0982162219
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description
The purpose of this manual is to provide an educational genetics resource for individuals, families, and health professionals in the New York - Mid-Atlantic region and increase awareness of specialty care in genetics. The manual begins with a basic introduction to genetics concepts, followed by a description of the different types and applications of genetic tests. It also provides information about diagnosis of genetic disease, family history, newborn screening, and genetic counseling. Resources are included to assist in patient care, patient and professional education, and identification of specialty genetics services within the New York - Mid-Atlantic region. At the end of each section, a list of references is provided for additional information. Appendices can be copied for reference and offered to patients. These take-home resources are critical to helping both providers and patients understand some of the basic concepts and applications of genetics and genomics.

Autistic Intelligence

Autistic Intelligence PDF Author: Douglas W. Maynard
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226815994
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
An examination of diagnostic processes that questions how we can better understand autism as a category and the unique forms of intelligence it glosses. As autism has grown in prevalence, so too have our attempts to make sense of it. From placing unfounded blame on vaccines to seeking a genetic cause, Americans have struggled to understand what autism is and where it comes from. Amidst these efforts, however, a key aspect of autism has been largely overlooked: the diagnostic process itself. That process is the central focus of Autistic Intelligence. The authors ask us to question the norms by which we measure autistic behavior, to probe how that behavior can be considered sensible rather than disordered, and to explore how we can better appreciate the individuality of those who receive the diagnosis. Drawing on hundreds of hours of video recordings and ethnographic observations at a clinic where professionals evaluated children for autism, the authors’ analysis of interactions among clinicians, parents, and children demystifies the categories, tools, and practices involved in the diagnostic process. Autistic Intelligence shows that autism is not a stable category; it is the outcome of complex interactional processes involving professionals, children, families, and facets of the social and clinical environments they inhabit. The authors suggest that diagnosis, in addition to carefully classifying children, also can highlight or include unique and particular contributions those with autism potentially can make to the world around us.

Identity and Social Change

Identity and Social Change PDF Author: Joseph E. Davis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351513907
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Identity and Social Change examines the thorny problem of modern identity. Trenchant critiques have come from identity politics, focusing on the construction of difference and the solidarity of minorities, and from academic deconstructions of modern subjectivity. This volume places identity in a broader sociological context of destabilizing and reintegrating forces. The contributors first explore identity in light of economic changes, consumerism, and globalization, then focus on the question of identity dissolution. Zygmunt Bauman examines the effects of consumerism and considers the constraints these place on the disadvantaged. Drawing together discourses of the body and globalization, David Harvey considers the growth of the wage labor system worldwide and its consequences for worker consciousness. Mike Featherstone outlines a rethinking of citizenship and identity formation in light of the realities of globalization and new information technologies. Part two opens with Robert Dunn's examination of cultural commodification and the attenuation of social relations. He argues that the media and marketplace are part of a general destabilization of identity formation. Kenneth Gergen maintains that proliferating communications technologies undermine the traditional conceptions of self and community and suggest the need for a new base for building the moral society. In the final chapter, Harvie Ferguson argues that despite the contemporary infatuation with irony, the decline of the notion of the self as an inner depth effectively severs the long connection between irony and identity.

Like a Diamond in the Sky

Like a Diamond in the Sky PDF Author: Shazia Omar
Publisher: Zubaan
ISBN: 9383074353
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
At twenty-one, Deen is dismayed by the poverty around him and trapped in negativity. Alienated from family and society, heroin is his drug of choice. Deen and his partner in crime, AJ, ride high on acid and amphetamines, philosophize in the university canteen, party in a politician’s posh pad and contemplate God at a roadside tea stall. From Maria, a chemically imbalanced diva, to a rickshaw-walla who reflects on the importance of positive energy, to a group of fakirs who sing about love, and a detective who has his own take on addiction, the characters in Shazia Omar’s debut novel crackle with life. They represent the despair, hopes and aspirations of a generation struggling to survive in the harsh realities of life in modern Dhaka. Hard-hitting and intensely moving, this is an extraordinary novel, and one that is destined to launch Omar as a major contemporary voice from South Asia. Published by Zubaan.

Anatomy of an Epidemic

Anatomy of an Epidemic PDF Author: Robert Whitaker
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307452425
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
Updated with bonus material, including a new foreword and afterword with new research, this New York Times bestseller is essential reading for a time when mental health is constantly in the news. In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades? Interwoven with Whitaker’s groundbreaking analysis of the merits of psychiatric medications are the personal stories of children and adults swept up in this epidemic. As Anatomy of an Epidemic reveals, other societies have begun to alter their use of psychiatric medications and are now reporting much improved outcomes . . . so why can’t such change happen here in the United States? Why have the results from these long-term studies—all of which point to the same startling conclusion—been kept from the public? Our nation has been hit by an epidemic of disabling mental illness, and yet, as Anatomy of an Epidemic reveals, the medical blueprints for curbing that epidemic have already been drawn up. Praise for Anatomy of an Epidemic “The timing of Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic, a comprehensive and highly readable history of psychiatry in the United States, couldn’t be better.”—Salon “Anatomy of an Epidemic offers some answers, charting controversial ground with mystery-novel pacing.”—TIME “Lucid, pointed and important, Anatomy of an Epidemic should be required reading for anyone considering extended use of psychiatric medicine. Whitaker is at the height of his powers.” —Greg Critser, author of Generation Rx

Discovering Addiction

Discovering Addiction PDF Author: Nancy D. Campbell
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472126296
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 662

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Book Description
Discovering Addiction brings the history of human and animal experimentation in addiction science into the present with a wealth of archival research and dozens of oral-history interviews with addiction researchers. Professor Campbell examines the birth of addiction science---the National Academy of Sciences's project to find a pharmacological fix for narcotics addiction in the late 1930s---and then explores the human and primate experimentation involved in the succeeding studies of the "opium problem," revealing how addiction science became "brain science" by the 1990s. Psychoactive drugs have always had multiple personalities---some cause social problems; others solve them---and the study of these drugs involves similar contradictions. Discovering Addiction enriches discussions of bioethics by exploring controversial topics, including the federal prison research that took place in the 1970s---a still unresolved debate that continues to divide the research community---and the effect of new rules regarding informed consent and the calculus of risk and benefit. This fascinating volume is both an informative history and a thought-provoking guide that asks whether it is possible to differentiate between ethical and unethical research by looking closely at how science is made. Nancy D. Campbell is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the author of Using Women: Gender, Drug Policy, and Social Justice. "Compelling and original, lively and engaging---Discovering Addiction opens up new ways of thinking about drug policy as well as the historical discourses of addiction." ---Carol Stabile, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee Also available: Student Bodies: The Influence of Student Health Services in American Society and Medicine, by Heather Munro Prescott Illness and the Limits of Expression, by Kathlyn Conway White Coat, Clenched Fist: The Political Education of an American Physician, by Fitzhugh Mullan

Toxic Psychiatry

Toxic Psychiatry PDF Author: Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 1250108721
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
Prozac, Xanax, Halcion, Haldol, Lithium. These psychiatric drugs--and dozens of other short-term "solutions"--are being prescribed by doctors across the country as a quick antidote to depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other psychiatric problems. But at what cost? In this searing, myth-shattering exposé, psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, M.D., breaks through the hype and false promises surrounding the "New Psychiatry" and shows how dangerous, even potentially brain-damaging, many of its drugs and treatments are. He asserts that: psychiatric drugs are spreading an epidemic of long-term brain damage; mental "illnesses" like schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety disorder have never been proven to be genetic or even physical in origin, but are under the jurisdiction of medical doctors; millions of schoolchildren, housewives, elderly people, and others are labeled with medical diagnoses and treated with authoritarian interventions, rather than being patiently listened to, understood, and helped. Toxic Psychiatry sounds a passionate, much-needed wake-up call for everyone who plays a part, active or passive, in America's ever-increasing dependence on harmful psychiatric drugs.