by Paul R. McHugh
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Product Description
From strenuous opposition to physician-assisted suicide to a conviction that sex-correction surgery for newborns is cruel and misguided, Dr. Paul R. McHugh's opinions are strong and often controversial. In this collection of essays, McHugh demonstrates why he is one of the most thought-provoking figures in the academic world. These pieces argue for a realistic appraisal of just what psychiatrists know and how they know it, with the aim of indicating how such knowledge can best be used not only for better patient care but also to reflect on and influence public issues and social movements. His essays will stimulate professional and popular discussion about the goals and effectiveness of current psychiatric practice. McHugh sorts through the layers of what he terms the "culturally driven misdirection of psychiatry and psychotherapy" to explain concepts often misunderstood by nonscholars and the intellectual community alike. America's leading psychiatrist may inspire you or offend you, but he will certainly make you think.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Incisive and Insightful, 2007-05-07
This is a fantastic book that explores the depths that modern psychiatry has only recently rebounded from, and is in danger of relapsing into. McHugh is a fairly balanced thinker, and pretty well-informed. The article on sex reassignment surgery is an absolute gem that challenges psychiatry to look its dogma in the face. Occasionally, there is a tendency to be extremely conservative. The Terry Schiavo comparison to the Nazi's extermination is a bit hyperbolic, although his point that there was no fMRI, PET, or even conventional MRI to _scientifically_ enlighten the debate is a very good one. The slippery slope argument is valid, but I think focusing of the right to keep alive by tube-feeding is going to distract from more clear-cut issues. Finally, McHugh outlines where the future of psychiatry might lead and how we have to make crucial decisions at this point in history to keep the art in accordance with truly Hippocratic principles.
In short, every psychiatrist should read it, but I am sad to say there are many who won't because they lack the capacity to be self-critical.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Thoughtful and Stimulating, 2007-04-02
An excellent collection of essays by Dr. Paul McHugh. Having been a student of Dr. McHugh's, these essays reveal his thoughtfulness and incredible grasp of things medical, social, and psychological. It is an excellent overview of where the field of psychiatry has been and where it is going. The future is bright thanks to the foresight and leadership of Dr. McHugh and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins, among others.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A Welcome Re-Orientation, 2006-11-09
Having encountered the fads of the 70's-80's,I had come to take a very dim view of the profession. It is a relief to see that change is in the air, science is back in the saddle (or nearly), and a refreshing practicality guides at least some practitioners.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Gaining Perspective in an Arena of Myths, 2006-11-04
McHugh provides biological,psychological,and psychiatric insights in a thoughtful, scholarly, and highly readible commentary.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Breadth and Depth in a Slender Volume, 2006-07-20
In 1909, during a lecture at Clark University, Dr. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, who was educated to be a neurologist, told his audience in Massachusetts that he was pleased and satisfied that psychoanalysis would only accompany medical doctors for a short distance but then "take leave of them."
Just how far this distance would grow and how unfortunate the consequences of the separation between psychoanalysis and scientific medicine would be for our culture, and indeed all of society, is one of the topics in this new, five-part book, "The Mind Has Mountains." The author, Dr. Paul McHugh, former chair of the department of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School, has put together a collection of his scholarly articles.
Harold Bloom in his column, "Why Freud Matters," (Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2006) advised us that despite the fact that no one today believes that psychoanalysis is a science, it cannot be gainsaid that "Freud ... was the equal of the other major writers of his era, James Joyce, Marcel Proust and Franz Kafka." Freudianism, along with its creative and imaginative platonic-like constructs (id, ego, libido, etc.) continues to impact society.
A reader of "The Mind Has Mountains" will have a balanced, erudite critique of Freud's continuing influence. Unlike the work of Freud and his progeny, Dr. McHugh's "Reflections" are based not on personal opinions or unproven theses, but are the fruit of years of painstaking, empirically verified research coupled with the vast clinical experience of the author and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins and other major university hospitals.
The book is not narrowly limited to psychoanalysis, but treats the whole range of issues which psychiatry faces today. From Part I, "Beginnings," until the last chapters in Part V, "The Ethical Use of Embryonic Stem Cells" and "A Psychiatrist Looks at Terrorism," the book covers a breadth of subject matter in engaging language that is accessible to the layman.
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