Stranger than Fiction : When Our Minds Betray Us

The complexities of mental disorders and their treatment are discussed in this book. Using the metaphor of the "lie of the mind", a disorder in which a person's thinking becomes unintentionally distorted, the authors approach mental illness from the perspective that these disorders are merely extreme variations of universally shared thoughts, feelings and behaviours. This work seeks to remove the artificial division separating the mentally ill from the general public and demystify symtoms that often seem bizarre. Case studies are referred to so that readers can see what each therapist confronts when treating disturbed patients. The authors argue that clinical decisions often rely more on educated hunches than medical certainties and that the practice of psychiatry is as much an art as it is a science.