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Kiesler's Beyond the Disease Model of Mental Disorder goes beyond recent volumes which argue that psychotropic medications are being overused and abused in contemporary mental health settings. Elliott Valenstein, for example, an emeritus professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan, recently argues that people should be highly suspicious of the claim that all mental illness is primarily a biochemical disorder. In his 1998 book, Blaming the Brain: The Truth about Drugs and Mental Health , Valenstein does not argue that drugs never work or that patients should discontinue taking medication. Valenstein's central point, instead, is that drugs do not attack the real cause of a disorder, since biochemical theories are an unproven hypothesis and probably a false one.

Inasmuch as Kiesler's volume is concerned exclusively with scientific explanations of mental disorders, it does not review at all the evidence for psychotropic medications or for other treatments of mental disorders. Kiesler does highlight a message similar to that of Valenstein, who rejects the hypothesis that mental illness is primarily a biochemical disorder. After a comprehensive review of the relevant scientific evidence, Kiesler concludes that henceforth the study of mental disorders must be guided by multicausal theories and research that systematically include an array of biological, psychological, and sociocultural causal factors. Kiesler adds that, in order for this to be accomplished, the mental health field and the public at large must first abandon the invalid monocausal biomedical (disease) model of mental disorder.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• What Causes Mental Disorders?
• The Biomedical Answer Understanding Mental Disorders: Definitions and Causes
• The ""American Way"" of Understanding Mental Disorders: The Biomedical Model Dissatisfaction with the Biomedical Model within Medicine and Psychiatry
• What Causes Mental Disorders?
• The Scientific Evidence
• Scientific Evidence Invalidates the Biomedical Model: Findings from Behavioral Genetics
• Scientific Evidence Invalidates the Environmental Model: Findings from Psychological Research
• Scientific Evidence: Stressful Events Affect the Development and Onset of Mental Disorders
• What Causes Mental Disorders?
• The Multicausal Biopsychosocial Answer Biopsychosocial Risk and Protective Factors in Mental Disorders
• Toward Valid Understanding of Mental Disorders: Multicausal, Biopsychosocial Theories Implications of Multicausal Theories for the Science and Disciplines of Psychopathology
• Appendix
• Indexes

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CHOICE Review

Although biomedical models are strongly supported by genetic data and widely accepted as the scientific theories of brain dysfunction, Kiesler reviews these entrenched models of psychopathology and finds them wanting. He describes the diathesis-stress and vulnerability-stress models to which most practitioners give lip-service, and points out that these theories have little influence in therapeutic practices, media presentations, or the general public's understanding of mental issues. Kiesler also outlines environmental models of psychopathology (behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and social-learning theories), identifying their weaknesses. He posits that no one, monocausal conceptualization of mental disorders effectively addresses their complexity. He offers instead a multicausal approach, a model he appropriately calls biopsychosocial. Using this model, Kiesler lists biological risk factors along with psychological risk and protective factors involved in a number of specific disorders. The author proposes that those doing meaningful research must take a biopsychosocial perspective and consider the interactive nature of variables that converge to produce psychopathology in an individual. Kiesler suggests multivariate regression analysis as helpful in assigning degrees of contribution of various factors. This book will make interesting reading for upper-division undergraduates through professionals in human services. L. G. Worthy; Andrew College

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

DONALD J. KIESLER is Professor and former Director of the doctoral program in clinical psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.