Family Therapy As an Alternative to Medication : An Appraisal of Pharmland

This text addresses the issue of the increased reliance on pharmaceuticals as a "quick fix" for treating mental illness. Psychiatric medications have achieved dominance in mental health practices, not because of efficacy, but because of political and marketing practices, and this rush to medicate has largely eclipsed the family systems model of psychotherapy. This book awakens a broader awareness of how invaluable systems-oriented psychotherapy still is, even in the age of medical breakthroughs. It analyses both positive and negative effects of drug therapy and offers several approaches towards integration. It presents treatment illustrations for various disorders, along with potential problems that can arise from trying to combine a medical model with family systems work. The work as a whole is not a monologue on the evils of drug therapy. Rather, the book takes the position that family systems approaches are powerful tools that, when combined with appropriate medication, act synergistically in effecting positive outcomes of treatment. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 Introduction: Setting the Stage for an Exploration of the Interface of Family Therapy and Medication......Page 18 Biometaphorical Psychiatry: Family Therapy and the Poetics of Experience, by......Page 20 When More Is Less: A Common Difficulty in Collaborative Treatment of Human Distress, by......Page 42 Foreword to Chapter 3......Page 52 Family Healing and Planetary Healing: Three Paradigms in Search of a Culture, by......Page 54 Theoretical Dimensions: Dilemmas and Contradictions in the Approaches of Family Systems Therapy and Psychopharmacological Practice......Page 78 Introduction to Part 2......Page 80 Psychobiological Family Therapy: Toward an Ecological Psychiatry, by......Page 84 A Systemic Frame for Mental Health Practices, by......Page 110 Can Giving Heal? Contextual Therapy and Biological Psychiatry, by......Page 128 Medicating the Ghost in the Machine, by......Page 156 Rethinking Illness, by......Page 176 Political lssues:The Mechanisms Behind the Accelerating Growth of Psychopharmacological Practices......Page 184 Introduction to Part 3......Page 186 The Myth of the Magic Pill, by......Page 188 Pig Pharma: Psychiatric Agenda Setting by Drug Companies, by......Page 210 Seeking Health: Clients Describe Their Experiences with Family Therapy and Psychopharmacological Treatment......Page 228 Introduction to Part 4......Page 230 The Headache, by......Page 234 Love of a Lifetime, by......Page 240 The Therapy That Almost Wasn't, or Imaginary Therapy, by......Page 258 The Therapist Replies: Observations from the Therapist Who Didn't Do Anything in the Therapy That Almost Wasn't While Attempting to Salvage the Love of a Lifetime, by......Page 266 An Afterword to the Client Essays......Page 272 Clinical Illustrations: Systems-Based Practices as Alternatives to the Use of Medication......Page 274 Introduction to Part 5......Page 276 Expert Therapist--BeginningTherapist, by......Page 280 The Jazz Consultation: Improvisation in Family Therapy, by......Page 286 Goldilocks and the Three Bears Revisited, by......Page 298 My Journey with Allison in Wonderland, by......Page 300 Deficit of Attention Disorder, by......Page 312 Thinking about Thinking in Family Therapy by......Page 318 Afterword......Page 334 Contributors......Page 336 Index......Page 338 Family Therapy as an Alternative to Medication critically and passionately explores the concepts and practices that constitute the interface between family systems based psychotherapy and modern biological psychiatry. This diverse collection of essays, eight by psychiatrists, is neither for nor against medication, but takes a skeptical view of the unquestioned dominance that medication-based treatments have achieved among mental health practitioners. Its viewpoint is that therapeutic attention to context and relationships, regularly diminished when medications are prescribed, interferes with the development of psychiatric disorders, adds to maturity, and expands consciousness. Clinical examples, by both practitioners and patients, are used to define potential problems that arise from trying to combine a medical model with family systems work and also illustrate the decision-making processes and methods for applying family systems based therapies. This book will stimulate thoughtful conversation among students and practitioners of all mental health disciplines. The way we act, the way we balance the complexities of freedom and responsibility, these depend on what answer we give to an ancient riddle, 'What is man?'