Cultures Of Healing: Correcting The Image Of American Mental Health Care
Every so often a landmark book is published that analyzes a subject from such a fresh perspective that it reveals that subject in a new light and paves the way for change. This finely reasoned and far-ranging analysis of mental health care in the United States by psychotherapist and former philosophy professor Fancher is such a book. Surveying the history of mental health care in this country, he delineates four major schools-psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive therapy, and biological psychiatry-demonstrating that each school is based not on a sound science but on "induct[ing] people into understanding life in certain ways that are artifacts of the cultures of healing... rather than facts about human nature." Although cultures of healing are legitimate, Fancher argues that society must understand the culture of the schools of care and assess them critically. This book aids such thinking and is highly recommended for all who are concerned with the state of mental health care in the United States.Marcia Welsh, Guilford Free Lib., Ct.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.