Schizophrenia: The Positive Perspective Explorations at the Outer Reaches of Human Experience

This fully revised second edition of Schizophrenia: The Positive Perspective uses biographical sketches and essays to discuss schizophrenia and related conditions, providing advice on methods of coping, routes to growth, recovery and well-being, and how schizophrenia can be viewed in a positive light. It also explores the insights of R.D. Laing and discusses how they can be applied to contemporary ideas and research. In this expanded edition Peter Chadwick, a previous sufferer, builds on his earlier edition and introduces new topics including: Cannabis smoking and schizophrenia. Psychoanalytic approaches to psychosis and their extension into the spiritual domain. Using cognitive behaviour therapy in the treatment of profound existential distress. How experiences on the edge of madness can be relevant to understanding reality. Schizophrenia: The Positive Perspective encourages hope, confidence and increased self-esteem in schizophrenia sufferers and raises new questions about how schizophrenia should be evaluated. It is important reading for anyone working with schizophrenic people including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and other mental health professionals.

Introduction: In Defence of Spirituality, Mysticism and Madness. Demystifying Madness and Mystifying Sanity. Parker, Cannabis and Altered States –A Positive View. Hammond, Cannabis and Altered States – The Dark Side. Getting in to Psychosis: The Story from the Inside. Getting Out of Psychosis: Hints and Strategies. Thinking at the Borderline: The ‘Deep Music’ Theory of Reality. Desmond: Comedian Mystic. Ivo: Fugitive from Crassness. Denys: Adventures in Meaning. Reflections on the Biographical Sketches. On the Acceptance and Emotional Understanding of Psychotic Thought. Issues in Diagnosis, Therapy and Understanding. Conclusions and Overview.

Peter K. Chadwick has lectured in psychology for the universities of Liverpool, Strathclyde, Birkbeck and Goldsmiths Colleges, London, and also for the Open University. He was Professor of Community Psychology at Boston University from 1991 to 1994. He retired from teaching in 2006 and was awarded the DSc by the University of Bristol in 2007 for his research over the past four decades