Our necessary shadow : the nature and meaning of psychiatry

By:

Burns, Tom

Publisher: London : Penguin Books, 2014Description: 332p. ; 20 cmISBN:

9780241954430

Subject(s):

NLM classification:

WM 11

Summary: In this deeply thoughtful, descriptive and sympathetic book, Tom Burns reviews the historical development of psychiatry. What he reveals is that mental illnesses are intimately tied to that which makes us human in the first place and have always followed us. The drive to relieve the suffering they cause is even more human. Psychiatry, for all its flaws, currently represents our best attempts to discharge this most human of impulses. It is not something we can just ignore or decide to leave. It is our necessary shadow.

List(s) this item appears in: SLaM Mental Health History

Holdings
Item type	Home library	Class number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	South London and Maudsley Trust Library Shelves	WM 11 BUR (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		022983

Browsing South London and Maudsley Trust Library shelves, Shelving location: Shelves Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)

Previous			No cover image available					Next
Previous	WM 11 BER Patient tales :	WM 11 BEY Beyond the water towers :	WM 11 BRI Freud's contribution to psychiatry	WM 11 BUR Our necessary shadow : the nature and meaning of psychiatry	WM 11 DYC Psychedelic psychiatry : LSD from clinic to campus	WM 11 ELH The lobotomist :	WM 11 FAL Madness : a biography	Next

Originally published: London: Allen Lane, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

In this deeply thoughtful, descriptive and sympathetic book, Tom Burns reviews the historical development of psychiatry. What he reveals is that mental illnesses are intimately tied to that which makes us human in the first place and have always followed us. The drive to relieve the suffering they cause is even more human. Psychiatry, for all its flaws, currently represents our best attempts to discharge this most human of impulses. It is not something we can just ignore or decide to leave. It is our necessary shadow.

User comment on 31/07/2019

Ten out of ten!!

to post a comment.