Okay, I wrote this, so of course I like it--and since I have to give it "stars" in order to post, I give it five.

But the point of this "review" is to say that the book will be back in print this Fall (2003), from Transaction Publishers/Rutgers, with a new intro and a new title--"Health and Suffering in America: The Context and Content of Mental Health Care."

The hype about mental health care in the last five years or so has grown more and more outrageously false. I'm glad Transaction wants to keep this book in print, as a corrective to the nonsense that those who profit from mental health care would have you believe.

This is the best book on comparative clinical psychology/psychiatry I've ever read.

If psychotherapists/psychiatrists were considered faith healers (which this book makes clear they are), this book would qualify as a book on comparative religion, and it would make one question their faith.

Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism, Cognitive Therapy, and Biological Psychiatry are all analyzed, with their core beliefs and assumptions described in detail. Each school's standing with the scientific facts is mentioned.

Cultural reasons why Americans accept certain therapies, or come to accept them in spite of their unscientific bases, are also given.

The most noticable omission is the lack of any discussion of Albert Ellis' Rational Emotive Therapy, although many of the comments about Beck's therapy apply to RET too.

The chapter on biological psychiatry could have provided more background on its history, as well as mention more specific psychiatrists' and pharmaceutical companies' influences. For biological psychiatry, "Blaming the Brain" by Elliot Valenstein (mentioned in this text's acknowledgements) is also recommended.

Without coming out too strongly (which could create a backlash), the book does an excellent job of pointing out how biological psychiatry's illness model is used to justify prescribing psychoactive drugs with no proven specificity in treating "illnesses", in a culture which otherwise wages war on psychoactive drugs.

The only noticable editorial error was a major misspelling of "renaissance".

I was amazed at the clarity this book sheds on psychological schools of thought. It does an excellent job of explicating the values of each school of thought, giving the reader information by which to evaluate them.

I would highly recommend Cultures of Healing to anyone interested in therapy to help them understand what types of therapists do what, and what they believe in. I would also recommend Cultures of Healing to any psychology student who wishes to make some sense out of the morass of contradictory beliefs.

Definitely buy this book.

I've read a number of books regarding the mental side of playing pool. Dr. Bob seems to break it down to the nitty gritty and manages to keep it interesting. If you've ever played pool and need work on your mental game, this book could quite possibly help you out. It helped me. Try it and see....it's defintely worth a read if you're serious about playing a better mental game than you are now.

If you're a serious player, this may be the most important purchase you'll ever make to improve your pool game. Once you are proficient at pocketing balls, getting shape, breaking, safety play and kicking, it's your mental game that determines if your skills will "come out to play today" or not. If you usually play much better in practice or when nothing is on the line than when in serious competition, this book is for you. Dr. Fancher teaches you how to use competitive pressures to your benefit. Believe it or not, you actually have the capacity to play better in competition than in practice by using the methods contained in this wonderful book. It's worked wonders for my game. I've surprised myself many times over the past year with sterling play during pressure packed matches. If I could rate this book higher than 5 stars, I would without hesitation.

I began playing pool in early middle age, after I'd been practicing psychotherapy for several years. Since understanding the mind is my profession, I began studying pool psychology. Nothing available made any scientific sense--we know enough about the mind to know that the conventional wisdom about "the mental game" is just wrong. Minds don't work like that.

So I began trying to figure it out on my own, using my knowledge of the best current science. "Pleasures of Small Motions" is the result.

If you want gimmicks, don't buy this book. If you want hocus-pocus or psychobabble, don't buy this book. However, if you want a scientifically sound understanding of the mental game, have a look.