Overview

"What determines the form of mental illness from which particular people suffer? Professor Claridge's central theme is that ""psychiatric"" disorders--even in their most severe forms--are abnormal manifestations of temperamental and personality characteristics we all possess to a greater or lesser degree. Examining the major forms of abnormality from this point of view, the author puts particular emphasis on the continuity between schizophrenia and normal behavior. From the Preface The exact origins of this book are, I must confess, lost to me, though I do recall that in its present form it began to take shape in the waiting-room of a car body repair shop just north of Oxford. If that seems too casual a beginning, I should explain that my melancholic visit to that establishment eventually led to a more sanguine encounter with Philip Carpenter of Blackwell's. After seeing an early version of the manuscript he suggested to me that, with some revision, it might make a publishable book. Among other things I am grateful to him for articulating what was wrong with the original version and for focusing my mind on the laborious task of reshaping it. The book now conveys as well as it can, I believe, the ideas I meant to impart, at least to the audience for whom it was intended: students of psychology, psychiatry, and allied disciplines, inquisitive professionals in other specialties, and even those members of the general public interested in what an academic (alias clinical) psychologist has to say about mental illness."

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9781883536015

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Reviews

The central theme he develops is that 'psychiatric disorders-even their most severe forms-are abnormal manifestations of temperamental and personality characteristics which we all possess to a greater or lesser degree and which have interesting and testable correlates in the conceptual nervous system.' The biological basis of mental illness is contained in his theory. Genetic as well as environmental influences do contribute to differences in human individuality, but he sees the task of abnormal psychology as finding ways of integrating factual evidence about biological differences between...He presents research data and a historical perspective not readily available to the clinician in the United States. - Robert Ornstein, author of The Evolution of Consciousness and The Roots of The Self In an immensely readable fashion, Claridge brings to life important studies on the nature of our personality, mental illness and madness. He links the normal with the abnormal, the creative and the mad, the workaday research of psychology with the florid experiences of the mentally ill. And he does it with humility, sense and brilliance. This is an important book, because it brings to the general reader and the professional an unrivaled range of experience, competence and understanding. A triumph! - Robert Ornstein, author of The Evolution of Consciousness and The Roots of The Self He presents research data and a historical perspective not readily available to the clinician in the United States. - Journal of the American Medical Association, Chicago, IL A lucid and original piece of work. - Anthony Storr in The Good Book Guide

Author Information

Gordon Claridge was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and University Lecturer in Abnormal Psychology.

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