Author: Paris Williams
Publisher: Sky's Edge Publishing
Paperback:
ISBN 10: 0984986707
ISBN 13: 978-0984986705
As the recovery research continues to accumulate, we find that the mainstream understanding of schizophrenia and psychosis has lost nearly all credibility:
• After over 100 years and billions of dollars spent on research looking for schizophrenia and other related psychotic disorders in the brain, we still have not found any substantial evidence that these disorders are actually caused by a brain disease.
• We have learned that full recovery from schizophrenia and other related psychotic disorders is not only possible but is surprisingly common.
• We’ve discovered that those diagnosed in the United States and other “developed” nations are much less likely to recover than those in the poorest countries of the world; furthermore, those diagnosed with a psychotic disorder in the West today may fare even worse than those so diagnosed over 100 years ago.
• We’ve seen that the long-term use of antipsychotics and the mainstream psychiatric paradigm of care is likely to be causing significantly more harm than benefit, greatly increasing the likelihood that a transient psychotic episode will harden into a chronic psychotic condition.
• And we’ve learned that many people who recover from these psychotic disorders do not merely return to their pre-psychotic condition, but often undergo a profound positive transformation with far more lasting benefits than harms.
In Rethinking Madness, Dr. Paris Williams takes the reader step by step on a highly engaging journey of discovery, exploring how the mainstream understanding of schizophrenia has become so profoundly misguided. He reveals the findings of his own groundbreaking research of people who have fully recovered from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, weaving the stories of these participants into the existing literature and crafting a surprisingly clear and coherent vision of the entire psychotic process, from onset to full recovery.
As this vision unfolds, we discover . . .
. . . ways to support those struggling with psychotic experiences while also coming to appreciate the important ways that these individuals can contribute to society.
. . . a deeper sense of appreciation for the profound wisdom and resilience that lie within all of our beings, even those we may think of as being deeply disturbed.
. . . that by gaining a deeper understanding of madness, we gain a deeper understanding of the core existential dilemmas with which we all must struggle, arriving at the unsettling realization of just how thin the boundary really is between madness and sanity.
Review
"Every page of this book was exciting to me . . . This book should be a part of the training of every physician, psychiatrist, and pastoral counselor, and owned by the family and friends of every mentally ill person as well as the sufferers themselves." - Joanne Greenberg, bestselling author of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
"A book of profound illumination both for the scholar and the person struggling for his or her psychical life. I highly recommend this book to all those who are touched by the psychotic experience, which really means all of us--and to find out why, just read this book!" - Kirk Schneider, Ph.D., author of Awakening to Awe
"Deceptively easy to understand, yet thought provoking and challenging, his work offers plausible reasons to overcome the too simple historical medical approaches that ignore the richness of the human experience and the positive potential inherent in one's journey through madness." - Ronald Bassman, Ph.D., author of A Fight to Be
"In a clear manner, Dr. Williams lays out the evidence for a 'paradigm shift' in our thinking that, at its core, would offer people who experience madness both hope and the knowledge that robust recovery is possible, and, with the right support, quite common." - Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America and Anatomy of an Epidemic
"Rethinking Madness provides not only a compelling critique of the pessimistic and damaging 'medical model' that has dominated mental health services and research for far too long, it offers some hopeful alternatives." - John Read, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Editor of Models of Madness and the scientific journal Psychosis
About the Author
Dr. Paris Williams offers the very rare and powerful perspective of someone who has experienced psychosis from both sides--as a practicing psychologist and researcher, and as someone who has himself struggled with psychotic experiences. In his late 20's, while in the midst of a very successful career as a hang gliding instructor and competition pilot (winning a World Champion title and multiple National Champion titles), Paris Williams suddenly found himself plunged into a profound struggle with experiences that would have likely resulted in the diagnosis of a psychotic disorder. Fortunately, he managed to avoid becoming entangled within the psychiatric system, and he instead embarked upon a journey of healing and self discovery, working to resolve his own personal crisis while aspiring to support others going through similar crises. He has since spent over a decade deeply exploring both Eastern and Western understandings of mind and consciousness, studying intensive meditation from a number of different masters around the world, earning a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, working in numerous settings supporting people struggling with psychosis and other challenging and extreme experiences, and conducting a series of pioneering research studies at Saybrook University on recovery from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. He continues to work as a psychologist in the San Francisco Bay Area.
