The Couch, the Clinic, and the Scanner, Dr. David Hellerstein’s new book, consists of fourteen personal chapters that capture the momentous changes in psychiatry over the past half century. Rather than a conventional dispassionate narrative, the tales told here explore...

The post Q&A: David Hellerstein on the “Wild Ride” and The Couch, the Clinic, and the Scanner first appeared on Columbia University Press Blog.

Illness and death have always raised profound spiritual concerns. However, today most people experience suffering and treatment in hospitals and other impersonal, bureaucratic facilities whose employees are expected to follow scientific, rationalized norms of behavior. How do professional caregivers—the nurses...

The post Q&A: Don Grant on Nursing the Spirit first appeared on Columbia University Press Blog.

America’s fascination with the cable show Sister Wives (about an American polygynous family), along with their increased interest in exploring the viability of forming a polyamour (or plural love) arrangement, arises out of a relentless interest in whether they can achieve a...

The post What Can a Study of American Polygamy Tell Us About Being Human?

William Jankowiak

In the mid-twentieth century, social psychiatry was an approach to mental health that stressed the prevention of mental illness rather than its treatment. In the 1960s, it led to the closure of asylums and the emergence of community mental health...

The post Q&A: Matthew Smith on The First Resort first appeared on Columbia University Press Blog.

To those who emphatically support gun rights, having “more guns” is generally seen as the solution to society’s woes. The way these people see it, the more guns there are, the less likely it is that crimes will be committed...

The post The History and Politics of “More Guns”

Patrick J. Charles