In the late 1950s the psychiatrist R.D.Laing and psychoanalyst Aaron Esterson spent five years interviewing eleven families of female patients diagnosed as 'schizophrenic'. Sanity, Madness and the Family is the result of their work. Eleven vivid case studies, often dramatic and disturbing, reveal patterns of affection and fear, manipulation and indifference within the family. But it was the conclusions they drew from their research that caused such controversy: they suggest that s...

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**This book is about learning to live.Echoing Socrates' statement that the unexamined life not worth living, psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz draws on his twenty-five years of work and more than 50,000 hours of conversations to form a collection of beautifully rendered tales that illuminate the human experience.These are stories about everyday lives: from a woman who finds herself daydreaming as she ...

'A masterpiece' – The New York TimesIf a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self – himself – he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.In this extraordinary book, Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients struggling to adapt to often bizarre worlds of neurological disorder. Here are people who can no longer recognize everyday objects or those ...

The first love in our lives is our mother. Recognizing her face, her voice, the meaning of her moods, and her facial expressions is crucial to survival. Dr. Christine Ann Lawson vividly describes how mothers who suffer from borderline personality disorder produce children who may flounder in life even as adults, futilely struggling to reach the safety of a parental harbor, unable to recognize that their borderline parent lacks a pier, or even a discernible shore. Four character profiles de...

From bestselling author and teacher Mary Maccracken comes the engaging and inspiring story of five troubled children who she fought to bring back from the brinkJoey is the class clown, but alone proves to be an intensely dark seven-year old who still can’t read.Eric is a kindergartener, left withdrawn and speechless by the horrors he’s witnessed at home.Alice appears the model fifth year child, but secretly scores zero on every maths test.Charlie, an eight-year...

**THE INSPIRATION FOR THE NBC SERIES BRILLIANT MINDS • In his most extraordinary book, the bestselling author of Awakenings and "poet laureate of medicine” (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients inhabiting the compelling world of neurological disorders, from those who are no longer able to recognize common objects to those who gain extraordinary new skills.“Oliver Sacks has become the world's best-known neurologist. His case studies ...

A BEST BOOK OF 2023 IN THE TIMES, GUARDIAN AND WALL STREET JOURNALFrom Hadley Freeman, bestselling author of House of Glass, comes a searing memoir about her experience with anorexia, and her long journey to full recovery.From the ages of fourteen to seventeen, Freeman lived in psychiatric wards after developing anorexia nervosa. For the next twenty years, she grappled with various forms of self-destructi...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MIND BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2011Joanne Limburg thinks things she doesn't want to think, and does things she doesn't want to do. As a young woman, obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours had come to completely dominate her life. She knew that something was wrong, but it would take many painful years of searching to find someone who could explain her symptoms.The Woman Who Thought Too Much is a vividly honest, beautifully tol...

In this classic study of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), a distinguished psychiatrist offers hope and help for those suffering from mental illness, suggesting pathways forward through behavioral therapies and mediation.Drawing on the extraordinary experiences of her patients, Dr. Judith Rapoport unravels the mysteries surrounding OCD, an emotionally crippling affliction that affects millions of Americans. The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing follows Dr. ...

In this third and final volume John Bowlby completes the trilogy Attachment and Loss, his much acclaimed work on the importance of the parental relationship to mental health. Here he examines the ways in which young children respond to a temporary or permanent loss of a mother-figure and the expression of anxiety, grief and mourning which accompany such loss. The theories presented differ in many ways from those advanced by Freud and elaborated by his followers, so much so that th...

**These “moving and often surprising” (The Wall Street Journal) case histories meld science and storytelling to show that caregivers don’t just witness cognitive decline in their loved ones with dementia—they are its invisible victims.“This book will forever change the way we see people with dementia disorders—and the people who care for them.”—Lori Gottlieb, author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone**A BBC BOOK OF THE WEEK • A TELEGRAPH ...

Swearing, it turns out, is an incredibly useful part of our linguistic repertoire. Not only has some form of swearing existed since the earliest humans began to communicate, but it has been shown to reduce physical pain, help stroke victims recover their language, and encourage people to work together as a team.Swearing Is Good For You is a spirited and hilarious defence of our most cherished dirty words, backed by historical case studies and cutting-edge research. From ch...