Anti-psychiatry, as represented by authors such as R.D. Laing and Thomas Szasz, was an anti-authoritarian, popular, even romantic, attack on psychiatrists' use of psychiatric diagnosis, drug and ECT treatment and involuntary hospitalisation. Sufficient time has elapsed to restate the critique of psychiatry. Critical psychiatry represents an advance over the polarisation in the debate engendered by anti-psychiatry. This book resolutely encourages critical thinking about psychiatry and is based on critical theory about the basis of psychiatry. It is a multi-authored text and many of the contributors are members of the Critical Psychiatry Network (www.criticalpsychiatry.co.uk) . Their essential message is that psychiatry can be practised without the justification of postulating brain pathology as the basis for mental illness.

'This is a classic work that everyone working in mental health should read. Even if you don't agree with what the authors say, it will certainly encourage you to think - critically.' - Mental Health Today

Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Critical Psychiatry: Reducing the Biomedical Dominance of Psychiatry; D.B.Double
PART 1: ANTI-PSYCHIATRY AND CRITICAL PSYCHIATRY IN RETROSPECT
Historical Perspectives on Anti-Psychiatry; D.B.Double
From 'Anti-Psychiatry' to Critical Psychiatry; J.Heaton
Transcultural Mental Health Care and the Challenge to Positivist Psychiatry; D.Ingleby
PART 2: THE PROSPECT OF CRITICAL PSYCHIATRY
The Limits of Biomedical Frameworks; L.Johnstone
Understanding Psychiatry's Resistance to Change; T.Lynch
The Politics of Psychiatric Drug Treatment; J.Moncrieff
British Mental Health Social Work and the Psychosocial Approach in Context; S.Ramon
Democracy, Citizenship and the Radial Possibilities of Postpsychiatry; P.Bracken & P.Thomas
The Biopsychological Approach in Psychiatry: The Meyerian Legacy; D.B.Double
Critical Child Psychiatry; S.Timimi
Conclusion: Critical Psychiatry and Conflict: Renewing Mental Health Practice; D.B.Double
Index

D.B. DOUBLE is Consultant Psychiatrist and Honorary Senior Lecturer, Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and University of East Anglia, UK. He is a founding member and website editor of the Critical Psychiatry Network (www.criticalpsychiatry.co.uk).