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  • Book
  • © 2015

Psychiatry Under the Influence

Institutional Corruption, Social Injury, and Prescriptions for Reform

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Bob Whitaker is a leading authority, a highly recognized authority in American critical psychiatry

  • Contains cutting edge scholarlship from Harvard's Safra Center for studying ethical issues in public life

  • A timely contribution to understanding the failures of mental health systems

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
  2. Seeds of Corruption

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. A Case Study of Institutional Corruption

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 3-7
    3. Psychiatry Adopts a Disease Model

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 9-25
    4. Economies of Influence

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 27-41
  3. Science Corrupted

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 43-43
    2. The Etiology of Mental Illness Is Now Known

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 45-62
    3. Psychiatry’s New Drugs

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 63-85
    4. Expanding the Market

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 87-115
    5. Protecting the Market

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 117-133
    6. The End Product: Clinical Practice Guidelines

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 135-151
  4. The Search for Solutions

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 153-153
    2. A Society Harmed

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 155-171
    3. Putting Psychiatry on the Couch

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 173-195
    4. Prescriptions for Reform

      • Robert Whitaker, Lisa Cosgrove
      Pages 197-207
  5. Back Matter

    Pages 209-241

About this book

Psychiatry Under the Influence investigates the actions and practices of the American Psychiatric Association and academic psychiatry in the United States, and presents it as a case study of institutional corruption.

Keywords

  • Psychiatry
  • psychology
  • DSM
  • American Psychiatric Association
  • pharmaceutical industry
  • conflicts of interest
  • ethics
  • institutional corruption
  • clinical practice guidelines
  • psychiatric drugs
  • psychiatric diagnoses
  • antidepressants
  • antipsychotics
  • stimulants
  • ADHD
  • depression
  • anxiety disorders
  • corruption
  • disease
  • drugs
  • etiology
  • psychiatry
  • reform
  • society
  • state

Reviews

“This is an extraordinary piece of work that should be read by every mental health professional, minimally. The book might also serve well as a supplemental advanced undergraduate or graduate textbook in a psychopathology or even a research methods class. Where research methods courses separate good from bad science, Whitaker and Cosgrove have now provided us with numerous examples of bad science to which we can now add, corrupt science.” (Fred Ernst, Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, Vol. 46, 2016)

"This timely book is a careful and thoughtful analysis of institutional and political influences on the way psychiatry works today, and it provides a scholarly exploration of a problem that has consequences for all of us. Whitaker and Cosgrove's passionate critique gives us the resources to develop solutions and to mobilize voices for an authentically liberating response to questions of mental health." - Ian Parker, Professor of Management, University of Leicester, UK

"Psychiatry Under the Influence is a thoughtful and well-researched exposé of the current framing of mental health and illness, using the lens of institutional corruption to examine the dual influence of psychiatry's financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry and professional protectionism. This is a profoundly humanistic critique of how the scientific evidence supporting newer psychiatric drug treatments could be so poor, yet have 'street cred'. This a 'must read' on the medicalization of modern life." - Barbara Mintzes, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney, Australia

About the authors

Robert Whitaker is the author of four books, two of which—Mad in America and Anatomy of an Epidemic - tell of the history of psychiatric treatments. Anatomy of an Epidemic won the Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism in 2010. He is a former Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University, USA.
 
Lisa Cosgrove is Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA and a Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University, USA.  She is also a clinical psychologist. She has co-edited and co-authored casebooks on the ethical and medico-legal issues that arise in organized psychiatry because of financial conflicts of interest. She received the 2014 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology for her paper "Industry's Colonization of Psychiatry."

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access