BOOKS

Sorry, this had a much more extensive collection for a time. Most of the listed books were presented with a photo of the cover. They have all disappeared. I will try to get back to this as I’m able. In the meantime there remains a highly abbreviated collection of books below. Thank you.

This will always be a work in progress. After the links at the beginning are many images of additional books.You can click on the images to learn more or to buy

. At some point I hope to have a brief descriptor on all of the images. For now it’s still bare bones and incomplete.

Newest addition:

A Profession Without Reason: The Crisis of Contemporary Psychiatry―Untangled and Solved by Spinoza, Freethinking, and Radical Enlightenment — Bruce E. Levine Paperback – July 5, 2022

Asylums are supposed to be in the past. However, though the buildings were closed, many of the practices lived on.

In fact, more law-abiding Americans today are being involuntarily committed and forcibly treated “for their own good” than at any time in history.

By Ron Wipond: Your Consent Is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships

New section: Shamanism (other themes below, including more specifically mental health oriented)

The Shaman’s Body: A New Shamanism for Transforming Health, Relationships, and the Community – by Arnold Mindell.
Border Crossings: A Psychological Perspective on Carlos Castaneda’s Path of Knowledge — by Donald Lee Williams.
Rolling Thunder – by Doug Boyd.
Plant Spirit Medicine: The Healing Power of Plants – by Elliott Cowan
Shamans, Healers, and Medicine Men – by Holger Kalweit
Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime (Inner Traditions) – by Robert Lawlor
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse – by Peter Matthiessen
Lakota Woman. Die Geschichte einer Sioux- Frau. – by Mary Crow Dog
The Light of Discovery – by Toni Packer
Journey to Ixtlan – fiction by Carlos Castaneda
In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations – by Jerry Mander
Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit by Tom Cowan
The Lathe Of Heaven: A Novel – by Ursula LeGuin
Woman on the Edge of Time — by Marge Piercy
The Tao of Psychology — by Jean Shinoda Bolen
Rivers & Tides DVD — by Andy Goldsworthy
Waking Life DVD – by Richard Linklater

Stephen Buhner’s books on herbs etc::

TRAUMA

The Body Keeps the Score
“Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding and treating traumatic stress and the scope of its impact on society.” —Alexander McFarlane, Director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies

A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing in this New York Times bestseller

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives. (links from this site about this book are here)

More books. Click the photo

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Critiques of psychiatry, psych drugs and the mental illness system:

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The Zyprexa Papers

download (1) On December 17, 2006, The New York Times began a series of front-page stories about documents obtained from Alaska lawyer Jim Gottstein, showing Eli Lilly had concealed that its top-selling drug caused diabetes and other life-shortening metabolic problems. The “Zyprexa Papers,” as they came to be known, also showed Eli Lilly was illegally promoting the use of Zyprexa on children and the elderly, with particularly lethal effects. Although Mr. Gottstein believes he obtained the Zyprexa Papers legally, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn decided he had conspired to steal the documents, and Eli Lilly threatened Mr. Gottstein with criminal contempt charges. In The Zyprexa Papers, Mr. Gottstein gives a riveting first-hand account of what really happened, including new details about how a small group of psychiatric survivors spread the Zyprexa Papers on the Internet untraceably. All of this within a gripping, plain-language explanation of complex legal maneuvering and his battles on behalf of Bill Bigley, the psychiatric patient whose ordeal made possible the exposure of the Zyprexa Papers.

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Resisting Illegitimate Authority

download The capacity to comply with abusive authority is humanity’s fatal flaw. Fortunately, within the human family there are anti-authoritarians—people comfortable questioning the legitimacy of authority and challenging and resisting its illegitimate forms. However, as Resisting Illegitimate Authority reveals, authoritarians attempt to marginalize anti-authoritarians, who are scorned, shunned, financially punished, psychopathologized, criminalized, and even assassinated.

Profiling a diverse group of U.S. anti-authoritarians—including Thomas Paine, Ralph Nader, Malcolm X, and Lenny Bruce—in order to glean useful lessons from their lives, Resisting Illegitmate Authority is the first self-help manual for anti-authoritarians.

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How do survivors of child abuse, bullying, chronic oppression and discrimination, and other developmental traumas adapt to such unimaginable situations? It is taken for granted that experiences such as hearing voices, altered states of consciousness, dissociative states, lack of trust, and intense emotions are inherently problematic. But what does the evidence actually show? And how much do we still need to learn?

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Robert Whitaker (following three titles)

Anatomy of an Epidemic

In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades? Every day, 1,100 adults and children are added to the government disability rolls because they have become newly disabled by mental illness, with this epidemic spreading most rapidly among our nation’s children. What is going on?

Anatomy of an Epidemic challenges readers to think through that question themselves. First, Whitaker investigates what is known today about the biological causes of mental disorders. Do psychiatric medications fix “chemical imbalances” in the brain, or do they, in fact, create them? Researchers spent decades studying that question, and by the late 1980s, they had their answer. Readers will be startled—and dismayed—to discover what was reported in the scientific journals.

Mad in America

Schizophrenics in the United States currently fare worse than patients in the world’s poorest countries. In Mad in America, medical journalist Robert Whitaker argues that modern treatments for the severely mentally ill are just old medicine in new bottles, and that we as a society are deeply deluded about their efficacy. The widespread use of lobotomies in the 1920s and 1930s gave way in the 1950s to electroshock and a wave of new drugs. In what is perhaps Whitaker’s most damning revelation, Mad in America examines how drug companies in the 1980s and 1990s skewed their studies to prove that new antipsychotic drugs were more effective than the old, while keeping patients in the dark about dangerous side effects.A haunting, deeply compassionate book-now revised with a new introduction-Mad in America raises important questions about our obligations to the mad, the meaning of “insanity,” and what we value most about the human mind.

Psychiatry Under the Influence

Psychiatry Under the Influence investigates the actions and practices of the American Psychiatric Association and academic psychiatry in the United States, and presents it as a case study of institutional corruption.

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Outside Mental Health: Voices and Visions of Madness reveals the human side of mental illness. In this remarkable collection of interviews and essays, therapist, Madness Radio host, and schizophrenia survivor Will Hall asks, “What does it mean to be called crazy in a crazy world?” More than 60 voices of psychiatric patients, scientists, journalists, doctors, activists, and artists create a vital new conversation about empowering the human spirit by transforming society. “This book is required reading for anyone who cares deeply about mental health and its discontents.” -Jonathan Metzl, MD, author of The Protest Psychosis: Schizophrenia and Black Politics “Bold, fearless, and compellingly readable… a refuge and an oasis from the overblown claims of American psychiatry” – Christopher Lane, author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became an Illness “A terrific conversation partner.” – Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness “Brilliant…wonderfully grand and big-hearted.” – Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America “Must-read for anyone interested in creating a more just and compassionate world.” – Alison Hillman, Open Society Foundation Human Rights Initiative “An intelligent, thought-provoking, and rare concept. These are voices worth listening to.” – Mary O’Hara, The Guardian “A new, helpful, liberating-and dare I say, sane-way of re-envisioning our ideas of mental illness.” – Paul Levy, Director of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center, Portland, Oregon “You will find clarity, grace, insight, compassion and most of all wisdom in these powerful interviews and writings assembled by long time mental health advocate Will Hall.” – Gabriella Coleman, author of Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy “A fantastic resource for those who are seeking change.” – Dr. Pat Bracken MD, psychiatrist and Clinical Director of Mental Health Service, West Cork, Ireland

The Emperor’s New Drugs by Irving Kirsch Harvard psychologist Irving Kirsch explodes the antidepressant myth. By tabulating the results of all the clinical trials conducted on antidepressants (including those buried by the pharmaceutical industry), he reveals that antidepressants actually work no better than placebos for 85% of patients. Even though his results have withstood sustained criticism and have also been replicated, antidepressant use has continued to soar. In 2011 there were 46.7m prescriptions dispensed to the English public alone. The lesson here is: don’t judge the excellence of a book by its impact on policy.

Crazy Like Us by Ethan Watters Written by one of North America’s foremost investigative journalists, this exceptional book tells the story of the globalisation of western psychiatry. Watters lays bare the strategies through which the pharmaceutical industry has converted new populations to our way of understanding and treating mental disorder, making billions in the process.