These perspectives have helped me to learn more about my patients and improve their overall treatment. The theories are laid out in a clear, understandable manor, so the non-psychiatrist may learn. P.S. Dr.McHugh is a gem!

The field of psychiatry may at first appear bewildering. People are complicated. The variety of ways in which thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can go awry are plentiful. The history of psychiatry has seen a number of attempts at reductionism in the face of this complexity, most notably that of the psychoanalytic school, the behaviorists, and the biological psychiatrists. These monolithic viewpoints have each distorted psychiatry, emphasizing some important features of mental life and its abnormalities while giving short shrift to others. Further the acrimony between adherents of these schools have left psychiatric trainees as well as the general public uncertain of what to believe about the nature of mental illness. In this book Drs. McHugh and Slavney have done a masterful job of making clear what we know in psychiatry and how we know it. Paul McHugh has been chairman of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins from 1977-2000; Phillip Slavney was director of residency training in the Hopkins psychiatry department for most of that time, and now directs consultation psychiatry there. Their book describes four perspectives of psychiatry, or ways of seeing disturbance of mental life, and shows how each is especially illuminating for particular types of psychiatric issues. The disease perspective is most useful for explaining major mental illnesses such as dementia, schizophrenia,and bipolar disorder. It is the most clearly biological, and invokes medications for treatment and laboratory methods for research. The life story perspective is most useful for a person who has suffered a setback and is demoralized. It emphasizes the uniqueness of each individual and the meaning that people's experiences have for them. The behavioral perspective concerns things people do that get them into trouble. Drug and alcohol abuse are the most common of these, but eating disorders and sexual disorders are included as well. Treatment in this perspective prioritizes stopping bad behaviors over understanding them. The dimensional perspective looks at the vulnerabilities that people have as a result of their lifelong traits. These vulnerabilities may arise out cognitive limitations or out of features of personality such as being impulsive or being a worrier. McHugh and Slavney draw on both their vast knowledge of the literature of psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience, and their long experience of evaluating and treating patients in order to make the case for their perspectival approach to the field. They succeed impressively, I think, for two reasons. One reason is that the approach is such an intelligent and sensible one. The other reason is that they have had the benefit of 15 years between the first edition of their book and this second edition. Major changes and additions were made between the two and the result is greater clarity, especially in the opening chapters, as well as a fuller discussion of themes that were only touched on in the original edition. For example, new chapters were written in the behavioral perspective section on suicide and on hysteria. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand where psychiatry stands today. But more than that, it is essential because it makes clear on what psychiatry stands, i.e. what sets of reasoning have gotten us where we are. With this clarity the path towards new insights and new discoveries becomes navigable. In short, this book is a gem.

The one-sentence review runs thus: anyone with an appreciation for science and/or history, particularly both, will enjoy this book.

The author, Trevor Levere, is obviously a consummate historian, with thorough knowledge of the workings of science and its development through the ages. Levere has a keen sense of the humanity and little ironies that make up the twists and turns of the shaping of the state of chemical knowledge at various times, and conveys them in a friendly, readable style. I found the discussion of the various approaches to gases and how knowledge of the gas laws came out out of them particularly interesting (and did you know Robert Boyle in his day was considered an "alchemist"?). The author is very good about zeroing in on the most fertile areas of discovery and expounding upon what came out of them.

There are only a couple of minor problems that don't have much impact on the overall flow of the book. One is that Faraday and electrochemistry were introduced rather abruptly, with no information about where charge-sign and current conventions came from. It was something I wanted to learn about, and felt it was rather conspicuously absent. The other is the final chapter, about 20th century chemical discoveries (DNA, buckyballs, yadda yadda), which seemed a bit meandering and aimless as a whole.

But overall, excellent, very accessible. Don't hesitate.

Transforming Matter: A History Of Chemistry From Alchemy To The Buckyball is a college-level discourse on the history of chemistry and will serve as a fine basic introduction for any studying the history of science as a whole. Chapters begin with early alchemy to survey the rise of theories about the elements, the creation of classification systems, and relationships between scientific method and practices. An excellent and highly recommended introduction.

This is an important albeit not uncontroversial contribution to the field of international political economy. The book tries to answer the question whether the world capitalist system is in crisis and the paths available for future world development. The works are firmly located within the world system thesis expounded by Wallerstein in many of his previous works.

The book intoruduces the concept of 6 vectors within which future paths can be examined. These are the inter-state system; world production; world labour force; human welfare; cohesion of states; and the structures of knowledge.

The book displays the weaknesses inherent in the world system thesis. These include overstating the degree of integration of the economies of the world and thus not taking into account the emergence of "non-states" run either by armed bandits or by organised crime.

The book does not deal adequately with the current state of the state. Given the debate around MNCs and their increasing expansion into areas which were the domain of the state this is an issue needing serious appraisal.

The depiction of this era as being a post US hegemonic era is also an area which will be contested by many writers, not least of all the Fukuyama's of the world.

Wallerstein concludes that the future depends onm how the following factors develop: * the extent to which there is loyalty to citizenship;

* the level of security through police order; the extent to which military orders are maintained; * level of welfare especially in relation to health and food distribution; * stability of religious institutions.

Ms Cooper has a great writing style which lends itself perfectly to the understanding of the uninitiated and untechnical layman of this topic. The unexpectedly fresh view into how to see the spaces in which we live made this book a special page-turner which can amuse and delight almost anybody. I highly recommend this book to those who onlt see the spaces we live and work in as shells and the unseen workings of the air-conditioning systems as only on or off.

"Alabi's World" is thorough (some note about that, later), captivating, and educational. To go to the cliche': "I have not been able to put the book down." I must qualify this by saying that my roots are from Suriname and therefore I have much interest in the material because of my familiarity with the settings. However, anyone interested in colonial history, African history as it pertains to the Western Hemisphere (slavery, slave rebellion, African customs of Maroons), will be thoroughly enlightened by the accounts charted in this book from the 4 perspectives listed above.

Richard Price has painstakingly arranged his research in such a matter that you get 4 different perspectives of life in Saramaka (Maroon colony located in the interior of Suriname): German Moravian (religious sect), Dutch Colonist, Saramaka, and his own. It is neatly arranged so that the information flows like a captivating story in which you follow these historical characters and get caught up in their lives, motivations, changes...

Because he has made one character the focal point, you get a more centralized view of what it was like in 18th century colonial Suriname and you can take away more detail from these individualized accounts.

I have discovered a great source for Maroon history in Suriname and will be seeking out all of Richard Price's titles to get the complete story about the Maroons.

As a med-student, this was the most helpful book ever. I had trouble understanding certain concepts in the field of hemotology and this was a charm. I strongly recommend this book to anyone in the medical field or interested in joining.

History of science, psychology and lots of wisdom in this book seaking a new paradigm for software engineering, using the unique features of software. I loved the book.

Dr. Miller and Dr. Bachrach have written a wonderful book. Dr. Miller was actually my daugther's ortho doctor until he took time off to help write this book. Dr. Bachrach is currently treating my daughter. I love the fact that they have made this book easy to understand and that it answers questions that you might never think to ask while you are in the clinic with your child.

Hey... if your Mom wrote a book on Clinical Management of Diabetes, wouldn't you give it 5 stars too?