The Book Of Woe

“Gary Greenberg has become the Dante of our psychiatric age, and the DSM-5 is his Inferno.” —Errol Morris Since its debut in 1952, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has set down the “official” view on what constitutes mental illness. Homosexuality, for instance, was a mental illness until 1973. Each revision has created controversy, but the DSM-5 has taken fire for encouraging doctors to diagnose more illnesses—and to prescribe sometimes unnecessary or harmful medications. Respected author and practicing psychotherapist Gary Greenberg embedded himself in the war that broke out over the fifth edition, and returned with an unsettling tale. Exposing the deeply flawed process behind the DSM-5’s compilation, The Book of Woe reveals how the manual turns suffering into a commodity—and made the APA its own biggest beneficiary.

“So the old man was home again. He could be heard roaring and then grumbling and then roaring again, cursing profusely in his drunken stupor, growling as he stumbled around the lower level. The children and the mother made room for him, much as one wittingly gets out of the way of a big, unfriendly animal. But none of these people were the animal’s prey. Upstairs, the telltale slapping of the screen door sent a silent scream of alarm through the child. He jumped up in a single reflexive motion from his cozy place by the light on the floor and slipped through the bedroom door and far back into the corner to the window. He had learned to move quickly, before the old man could hear him leaving the vent. He had learned not to hide under the covers. He had learned not to hide at all. It was useless.” Child of Woe is a story that must be told. The devastating trauma of child abuse is brought to light in this amazing true-life story of Maury Blair. Born into a world of hate and rejection, it seemed here was no hope for this lonely, frightened boy. Read His Story…and God’s Miracle! ~ David Mainse, Host of 100 Huntley Street

The maverick (and very funny) governor of Colorado tells his story, from early loss tocollege on the ten-year plan, to remarkable business and later political success In just over a decade, John Hickenlooper has gone from a craft-brew entrepreneur to mayor of Denver to governor of Colorado, hailed by many political analysts, the New York Times, and Fox News alike as a solid contender to be the next vice president. It is an unlikely tale of success, quintessentially American yet utterly exceptional. In The Opposite of Woe, Hickenlooper tells his own story of determination and daring, from business to politics, in his singularly sharp and often hilarious voice. After taking ten years to graduate from Wesleyan, Hickenlooper found himself laid off from his first job as a geologist in the oil industry. Lacking a day job, he rented a space in one of Denver's sketchiest neighborhoods and opened a brew pub. Honest, likable, and practical, Hickenlooper turned out to be a natural at running a restaurant; the pub was a huge success and did a great deal to revitalize a struggling neighborhood. In fifteen years, he blossomed from a small business owner into a millionaire at the helm of a string of pubs in Denver and across the country. He was such an influential member of the community that he acted on the encouragement of many and ran for mayor, essentially as a lark. And then he won. So began an eight year run as one of the most creative and successful mayors in the United States. Hickenlooper doubled down on his political career by running for Colorado governor in 2010, which he also won, then won again. He has tackled a host of pressing and volatile issues in a true battleground state: immigration, fracking, capital punishment, guns, the Affordable Care Act, same-sex marriage, legalized marijuana. Time and again, his administration has persuaded ideologically opposed constituencies to agree on a middle path and move forward--all while dealing with a tragic series of wildfires,"biblical" floods, shootings, and the assassination of a cabinet member. On display throughout is the rare candidness that has made him not only wildly popular at every step of the way, but also remarkably successful at getting things done. Co-written with journalist and former cabinet member Maximillian Potter, The Opposite of Woe is a fresh--and refreshing--angle on our political landscape from one of its brightest rising stars.

Max's parents assure him he has nothing to fear at Aunt Ida's house. But shortly after his arrival, the ghost of Aunt Ida's son who died years ago begins tormenting him. Max decides he'd rather take his chances on the nearby mountain…at night. Even there, he can't escape the ghost! And soon Max is lost with no one to turn to but the ghost. Should Max trust the ghost to get him safely down the mountain? The ending is up2U. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Calico is an imprint of Magic Wagon, a division of ABDO.

In the second novel in the acclaimed Josephine B. Trilogy, Sandra Gulland offers a sweeping yet intimate portrayal of the political and personal struggles of the wife of the most powerful man in the world. Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe is the much-awaited sequel to Sandra Gulland's highly acclaimed first novel, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. Beginning in Paris in 1796, the saga continues as Josephine awakens to her new life as Mrs. Napoleon Bonaparte. Through her intimate diary entries and Napoleon's impassioned love letters, an astonishing portrait of an incredible woman emerges. Gulland transports us into the ballrooms and bedrooms of exquisite palaces and onto the blood-soaked fields of Napoleon's campaigns. As Napoleon marches to power, we witness, through Josephine, the political intrigues and personal betrayals -- both sexual and psychological -- that result in death, ruin, and victory for those closest to her.

Am I depressed or just unhappy? In the last two decades, antidepressants have become staples of our medicine cabinets—doctors now write 120 million prescriptions annually, at a cost of more than 10 billion dollars. At the same time, depression rates have skyrocketed; twenty percent of Americans are now expected to suffer from it during their lives. Doctors, and drug companies, claim that this convergence is a public health triumph: the recognition and treatment of an under-diagnosed illness. Gary Greenberg, a practicing therapist and longtime depressive, raises a more disturbing possibility: that the disease has been manufactured to suit (and sell) the cure. Greenberg draws on sources ranging from the Bible to current medical journals to show how the idea that unhappiness is an illness has been packaged and sold by brilliant scientists and shrewd marketing experts—and why it has been so successful. Part memoir, part intellectual history, part exposé—including a vivid chronicle of his participation in a clinical antidepressant trial—Manufacturing Depression is an incisive look at an epidemic that has changed the way we have come to think of ourselves.

From "the most powerful psychiatrist in America" (New York Times) and "the man who wrote the book on mental illness" (Wired), a deeply fascinating and urgently important critique of the widespread medicalization of normality Anyone living a full, rich life experiences ups and downs, stresses, disappointments, sorrows, and setbacks. These challenges are a normal part of being human, and they should not be treated as psychiatric disease. However, today millions of people who are really no more than "worried well" are being diagnosed as having a mental disorder and are receiving unnecessary treatment. In Saving Normal, Allen Frances, one of the world's most influential psychiatrists, warns that mislabeling everyday problems as mental illness has shocking implications for individuals and society: stigmatizing a healthy person as mentally ill leads to unnecessary, harmful medications, the narrowing of horizons, misallocation of medical resources, and draining of the budgets of families and the nation. We also shift responsibility for our mental well-being away from our own naturally resilient and self-healing brains, which have kept us sane for hundreds of thousands of years, and into the hands of "Big Pharma," who are reaping multi-billion-dollar profits. Frances cautions that the new edition of the "bible of psychiatry," the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (DSM-5), will turn our current diagnostic inflation into hyperinflation by converting millions of "normal" people into "mental patients." Alarmingly, in DSM-5, normal grief will become "Major Depressive Disorder"; the forgetting seen in old age is "Mild Neurocognitive Disorder"; temper tantrums are "Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder"; worrying about a medical illness is "Somatic Symptom Disorder"; gluttony is "Binge Eating Disorder"; and most of us will qualify for adult "Attention Deficit Disorder." What's more, all of these newly invented conditions will worsen the cruel paradox of the mental health industry: those who desperately need psychiatric help are left shamefully neglected, while the "worried well" are given the bulk of the treatment, often at their own detriment. Masterfully charting the history of psychiatric fads throughout history, Frances argues that whenever we arbitrarily label another aspect of the human condition a "disease," we further chip away at our human adaptability and diversity, dulling the full palette of what is normal and losing something fundamental of ourselves in the process. Saving Normal is a call to all of us to reclaim the full measure of our humanity.