Folie A Deux

Every child learns, at a certain age, to keep secrets. Maybe it's a drag from a cigarette or a beer in the basement. What if the secret was the most shameful, yet impressive thing that ever happened in your life? What if you knew this fact would make you the envy of every other boy your age? But a confidence is useless if nobody in the world can be told. Then the burden turns inward, carried exclusively and morbidly by the sole proprietor. You love it, you hate it, you need it and can't wait to shed it all at once. This memoir is the story of labyrinthine secret that dragged Jim Cunneely to his limit. Jim had no idea how unbearably damaged his adolescence was until years later, when almost too late to fix the incalculable damage. This is what he found upon reaching the end of himself. This quite timely memoir explores in a raw and unrelenting manner the journey to rebuild a shattered life. One cannot simply read this story, it must be entered. Emerging possible only after it's completion.

Troublesome Disguises examines psychiatric conditions which are not necessarily uncommon, rare or exotic but are challenging for the clinician who may struggle to reach a diagnosis and to set up management strategies. However, with familiarity, these conditions can and should be recognised. This new edition is an exercise in consciousness-raising as well as a warning to beware of diagnostic systems which, despite their many virtues, may become too influential and may perpetuate errors which are to the detriment of patients. For the clinician struggling to understand and treat patients who fail to fit the usual diagnostic categories, Troublesome Disguises provides wise instruction in the virtue of entertaining doubts, as well as practical advice for the assessment and management of atypical cases.

"Collection of incunabula and early medical prints in the library of the Surgeon-general's office, U.S. Army": Ser. 3, v. 10, p. 1415-1436.

With over 105,000 medical terms and over one million words, this is the most extensive dictionary of its kind available.

Clinicians have long been fascinated by the rare and exotic in med icine. Similarly, psychiatrists and mental health professionals have been intrigued by the uncommon and extraordinary syndromes which, despite their rarity, have much to teach us about the limitless forms of human adaptation. Of particular interest is the fact that fragments and partial expressions of these rare disorders are often encountered in the dreams and fantasies of the "ordinary" patient. For this reason, the understanding and insights collected in this volume are likely to have clinical usefulness far beyond those rare occasions when we encounter the exotic in its fully developed form. These disorders demonstrate the complex interplay between intra psychic dynamic forces and the cultural influences which act to shape overt symptomatology. The section on extraordinary syndromes from non-Western cultures demonstrates the universality of the psychody namic roots of human suffering, despite the seemingly strange furms in which this suffering is expressed. As clinicians we are too often restricted by ethnocentric attitudes and culturally determined stereotypes. This volume provides a stimulating and enjoyable opportunity to reach beyond those limitations.

Delusional disorder, once termed paranoia, was an important diagnosis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and only in 1987 was it reintroduced into modern psychiatric diagnosis after being subsumed with schizophrenia. This book provides a comprehensive review of delusional disorder for psychiatrists and other clinicians. Beginning with the emergence of the concept of delusional disorder, the book goes on to detail its manifold presentations, differential diagnosis and treatment. Many instructive case histories are provided, illustrating manifestations of the various subtypes of delusional disorder, and related conditions in the paranoid spectrum. This is the most wide-ranging and authoritative text on the subject to have appeared for many years, and the first to suggest, based on the author's extensive experience, that the category of delusional disorder should contain not one but several conditions. It also emphasizes that, contrary to traditional belief, delusional disorder is a treatable illness.

A collection of the author's essays on the history and development of female identity from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Throughout the book are woven themes which are constant in Castle's work: fantasy, hallucination, travesty, transgression and sexual ambiguity.