Of two minds : an anthropologist looks at American psychiatry

In this groundbreaking book, Tanya Luhrmann -- among the most admired of young American anthropologists -- brings her acute intelligence and her sophisticated powers of observation to bear on the world of psychiatry. On the basis of extensive interviews with patients and doctors, as well as day-to-day investigative fieldwork in residency programs, private psychiatric hospitals, and state hospitals, Luhrmann shows us how psychiatrists are trained, how they develop their particular way of seeing and listening to their patients, what makes a psychiatrist successful, and how the enormous ambiguities in the field affect its practitioners and patients.How do psychiatrists learn to do what they do? What is it like for psychiatrists to deal with people who are in emotional extremity? How does the choice between drug therapy and talk therapy, each of which requires very different skills, affect the way psychiatrists understand their patients? Boldly and with sharp insight, Luhrmann takes the reader into the world of young doctors in training.At a time when mood-altering drugs have revolutionized the treatment of the mentally ill and HMOs are forcing caregivers to take the pharmacological route, Luhrmann places us at the heart of the struggle -- do we treat people's brains or their minds? -- and allows us to see exactly what is at stake. With sharp and soulful insight, T. M. Luhrmann examines the world of psychiatry, a profession which today is facing some of its greatest challenges from within and without, as it continues to offer hope to many. At a time when mood-altering drugs have revolutionized the treatment of the mentally ill and HMOs are forcing caregivers to take the pharmacological route over the talking cure, Luhrmann places us at the heart of the matter and allows us to see exactly what is at stake. Based on extensive interviews with patients and doctors, as well as investigative fieldwork in residence programs, private psychiatric hospitals, and state hospitals, Luhrmanns groundbreaking book shows us how psychiatrists develop and how the enormous ambiguities in the field affect its practitioners and patients. A study of modern American psychiatry examines the profession at a time when mood-altering drugs have revolutionized the treament of the mentally ill and HMOs are forcing caregivers to take the pharmacological route over the talking cure. Reprint. 15,000 first printing. What's wrong with the patient? -- The arrow of harm -- The culture and its contradictions -- The psychiatric scientist and the psychoanalyst -- Where the split came from -- The crisis of managed care -- Madness and moral responsibility. T.m. Luhrmann. Originally Published: New York : Knopf, C2000. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 317-328) And Index.