Mental Health and the Brain: Topic Suggestions

[1]

Mental Health and the Brain:
A Discussion
Fall, 2008

a course at Bryn Mawr College and associated public conversation [2]

[3]

Suggested Topics/Starting Points

The Significance of Genes

Genes, Brain, and Behavior [4]. Serendip, 2003.
Gene Hunt Hints at Cause of Bipolar Disorder [5]. NY Times, 18 Aug 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/science/15visual.html
Gene-Hunters Find Hope and Hurdles in Schizophrenia Studies [6]. NY Times, 31 July 2008.
Genes and Depression [7]. US News and World Report. 4 September 2008.

Pharmacotherapy

Matter over Mind [8]. Boston College Magazine. David Karp. Boston College Magazine. Summer, 2006.
Listening to Prozac. Peter Kramer. Viking. 1993.
Big Pharma and American Psychiatry: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly [9]. Steven Sharfstein. Psychiatric News, 19 August 2005.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Making the Unconscious Conscious, and Vice Versa: A Bi-Directional Bridge Between Neuroscience/Cognitive Science and Psychotherapy [10]. Paul Grobstein. Cortex, 2005.
On the Astonishing Clinical Irrelevance of Neuroscience [11] Sydney Pulver. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 2003.
Freud Returns [12]. Mark Solms. Scientific American, 2004.
Implications of Research in Cognitive Neuroscience for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy [13]. Drew Westen. Oxford Textbook of Pschotherapy, 2005.
"Have You Ever Been in Psychotherapy, Doctor?" [14]. Richard Friedman. NY Times. 19 February 2008.
Is Personal Psychotherapy Still Crucial for Residents? [15] Psychiatr. News, 4 May 2007

Cognitive/behavioral therapy

Academy of Cognitive Therapy [16]
Cognitive Theory of Depression. Aaron Beck, John Rush, Brain Shaw. Guilford Press. 1979.
Brain Data Reveal Why Psychotherapy Works [17]. Psychiatric News. 2004.

Additional forms of therapy

Psychotherapy for All: An Experiment [18]. NY Times. 11 March 2008.
Story Hour: The Use of Narrative Therapy with Families [19]. Serendip. Sarah Gibbs, 2007.
Logotherapy
Faith and Healing [20]. Jerome Groopman. NY Times Book Review. 27 January 2008.
The Lure of Treatments Science Has Dismissed. [21] NY Times Book Review. 25 December, 2007.

The Therapeutic Relationship/Alliance

Classification

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) [22]
The Man Behind Psychiatry's Diagnostic Manual [23]. NPR. 18 August, 2003.
Bipolar Disorder: Particle or Wave? DSM Categories or Spectrum Dimensions? [24] James Phelps. Psychiatric Times. 1 July 2006.
Psychiatry Handbook Linked to Drug Industry [25]. NY Times. 6 May 2008.
The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual. [26]

Schizophrenia

Visualizing Schizophrenia [27] and Schizophrenia and the Brain [28], NY Times, 4 September 2008.

Depression

Making Sense of Depression, Serendip [29]

Anxiety

Obsessive/Compulsive Behavior

Addiction

Eating Behavior

Measure for Measure: An Artistic Exploration of Eating Disorders, Body Image, and the Self. [30] Janna Stern and Serendip. 2000.
Sorry Your Eating Disorder Doesn't Meet Our Criteria [31]. New York Times. 30 November 2004.

Social Behavior

Autism
Williams Syndrome
Anti-social behavior, criminality

Personality Disorder

Self-injury

Childhood and Adolesence

Troubled Children: A Series [32], NY Times
[32]

Traumatic Stress

At the Border

Chronic fatigue syndrome
Fibromyalgia
Battle fatigue
Unexplained Physical Symptoms: What's a Psychiatrist to Do? [33] Humberto Marin and Javier Escobar. Psychiatric Times. 1 August 2008.

Community Mental Health

Rolling the Rock: Why Would Anyone Choose a Career in Community Mental Health Today? [34] David Dan. Psychotherapy Networker. August, 2008.

Special Education

Mental Health Parity

House Approves Bill on Mental Health Parity [35], NY Times, 6 March 2008
Insurance Parity [36], from Mental Health America

Comments

Therapeutic relationship/alliance [37]

Submitted by Paul Grobstein on Sat, 09/13/2008 - 3:44pm.

Added to list, looking for good web accessible starting points.

cross cultural perspective [38]

Submitted by LK (guest) on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 8:56pm.

Another possibility would be to think of mental health as a contemporary cultural phenomenon, and compare contemporary Western/American perspectives with either the historical record or other contemporary cultures, by going to the historical and anthropological literature. So too, looking explicitly at discussions that focus on class and/or race and mental health, as a way of pulling apart middle class western assumptions in thinking about normalcy, deviance, stigma, the possible roles of government policy and the health profession, religion, etc.

mental health: historical/cultural contexts [39]

Submitted by Paul Grobstein on Thu, 09/11/2008 - 12:01pm.

Yep, good additions. Thanks. And serves as well to highlight for others in the course and/or dropping by two additional points. The more obvious is that suggestions for additional topics are indeed welcome. The less obvious (my fault for not making this clear) is that I didn't include on the list topics that I expected to treat myself (at least to some extent) in the initial, pre-programmed course sessions. "Pulling apart middle class western assumptions" re "normalcy" by (among other things) cross cultural/historical contrast was indeed omitted from the topic list but very much on my mind. And certainly cultural/historical contrast should be on any compete list of topics for a course of this kind. As should be "class and/or race," "government," and "religion."

and gender [40]

Submitted by Anne Dalke on Fri, 09/12/2008 - 8:31pm.

and gender.

am thinking of classic 19th c. American texts--Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," Emily Dickinson's "Much Madness is Divinest Sense," Kate Chopin's The Awakening--as examples of a culture so out of joint that sane women seemed mad....