In this important new volume, Michael Robbins presents an exploration of schizophrenia unique in both its breadth and depth. His work renders this mysterious condition much more comprehensible, and offers both theoreticians and clinicians of different scientific orientations new possibilities for treatment and interdisciplinary collaboration. The book interweaves an explication of the nature and treatment of schizophrenia, drawn from interlocking perspectives including organic, psychological, interpersonal, familial, and socio-cultural, with five of the most detailed case reports of treatment to be found in the literature. Part I introduces the work by covering basic definitions of schizophrenia, the hierarchical systems model for mental illness, issues concerning the data presented in the book, and the methodology used to gather information. Representing the extremes in outcome, Part II comprises two extensive case studies: One is the story of an unusually successful treatment; the other is a case that proved to be a multisystem failure. Chapters in Part III synthesize what is known about the disorder from the perspectives of neuroscience, psychology and psychoanalysis, family systems, and society and culture, incorporating Dr. Robbins' original ideas in these areas. The contributions of such factors as constitutional vulnerability are also explored. Chapters on treatment issues in Part IV cover evaluation and treatment planning from a systems perspective, and review studies of the efficacy of a psychological approach. Technique, process, and the stages of psychotherapy are discussed in detail, as are issues of hospital treatment, pharmacologic and somatic modalities, and family treatment. Part V consists of three complete case studies that are illuminating reading for professionals and students alike. Covering the cases from inception to termination, and spanning the gamut of clinical experience, they include one case that had a positive outcome, one in which the patient seemed to choose to remain ill, and one successful treatment of a chronic schizophrenic. Rounding out the volume is a chapter that summarizes the work and points the way for future research. This thought-provoking book is basic reading for all human science professionals interested in the study and treatment of mental illness, in philosophical and practical questions about the relationships among the scientific disciplines, or in broad questions about the connections among the individual, the family, and social structure.

An international team of leading researchers and clinicians provides the first comprehensive, epidemiological overview of this multi-faceted and still-perplexing disorder. Controversial issues such as the validity of discrete or dimensional classifications of schizophrenia and the continuum between psychosis and 'normality' are explored in depth. Separate chapters are devoted to topics of particular relevance to schizophrenia such as suicide, violence and substance abuse. Finally, new prospects for treatment and prevention are considered.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • ONE OF GQ's TOP 50 BOOKS OF LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE 21st CENTURY • The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. "Reads like a medical detective journey and sheds light on a topic so many of us face: mental illness." —Oprah Winfrey Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.

This is the first book to address the clinical and neurobiological interface between schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There is growing evidence that obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia are prevalent, persistent and characterized by a distinct pattern of familial inheritance, neurocognitive deficits and brain activation. This text provides guidelines for differential diagnosis of schizophrenic patients with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and patients with primary OCD alongside poor insight, psychotic features or schizotypal personality. Written by a leading expert in the coexistence of obsessive-compulsive and schizophrenic phenomena, Schizo-Obsessive Disorder uses numerous case studies to present diagnostic guidelines and to describe a recommended treatment algorithm, demystifying this complex disorder and aiding its effective management. The book is essential reading for psychiatrists, neurologists and the wider range of multidisciplinary mental health practitioners.

Feelings of Being is the first ever account of the nature, role and variety of 'existential feelings' in psychiatric illness and in everyday life. There is a great deal of current philosophical and scientific interest in emotional feelings. However, many of the feelings that people struggle to express in their everyday lives do not appear on standard lists of emotions. For example, there are feelings of unreality, surreality, unfamiliarity, estrangement, heightened existence, isolation, emptiness, belonging, significance, insignificance, and the list goes on. Ratcliffe refers to such feelings as 'existential' because they comprise a changeable sense of being part of a world In this book, Ratcliffe argues that existential feelings form a distinctive group by virtue of three characteristics: they are bodily feelings, they constitute ways of relating to the world as a whole, and they are responsible for our sense of reality. He explains how something can be a bodily feeling and, at the same time, a sense of reality and belonging. He then explores the role of altered feeling in psychiatric illness, showing how an account of existential feeling can help us to understand experiential changes that occur in a range of conditions, including depression, circumscribed delusions, depersonalisation and schizophrenia. The book also addresses the contribution made by existential feelings to religious experience and to philosophical thought.