Hi Sammy. Thanks for that wonderful comment about Concepts. It's an old book, a reflection of my youth in the profession. I'm glad it was helpful to you.
1. Bernard Carroll's Twitter Feed: In between slagging off Donald Trump, Barnie manages to pack more clinical insights than most textbooks. Always logical, scientific, biological, rational, and aimed "to carve nature at its joints.". His jabs at Frances make Frances's new found antipsychaitry rhetoric look a bit silly - how about precision, not pragmatism?
2. Clinical Psychiatry: A Text-Book for Students and Physicians
Better than you don’t remember. Still the most vivid descriptions of mania and melancholia ever recorded, and dementia praecox deserves a second look.
3. Études cliniques sur les maladies mentales et nerveuses by Jules Falret
This is mostly the compiled works and notes of his father, Jean-Pierre. If I recall, it opens with an erudite rundown of diagnostic and etiological controversies that would put many on the DSM task force to shame.
4. Des maladies mentales considérées sous les rapports médical, hygiénique et médico-légal by Jean-Étienne Esquirol
The illustrations are excellent, the descriptions of cases vivid, and like Falret, he doesn’t do a half-bad job of tackling some of the thorny diagnostic and statistical issues. It's tentative and in it's infancy, but he has a more cogent understanding of the logical issues than manymodern academics. The treatments are a curiosity; he doesn’t favor digitalis but thinks there might be something to cupping and cauterization. He keeps a hot poker ready to scare off histrionics and hysterics, which is quite awful but shows his curiosity about these effects.
5. Mania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder by David Healy
I think Healy actually edges out Shorter on this one, especially with the North Wales Hospital records. I often think Healy's ideas are as misunderstood as Ghaemi's. Lest one think Healy is uncritical, he opens with a few gentle critiques of his peers. It takes the whole book to realize that he's not saying Kraepelin's disease is overdiagnosed, but rather the disease Kraepelin described has been replaced by a more cyclical course that tracks eerily with the drugs used to treat it. Healy isn’t too concerned about tricyclics in the melancholic phase, but before you think he's having a crack at Ghaemi, Healy's words may actually echo Koukouplos's observations that all drugs modify the frequency of cycling in some way, not just "antidepressants." - "attenuation" does not always equal "stabelization"
6. Treatise on Diseases of the Nervous System by William Alexander Hammond
Good clinical descriptions and I believe the first recorded use of lithium treatment (I want to really dig through Silas Weir Mitchell's lithium work though) I often quote Hammond’s thoughts on "general bloodletting" when trying to persuade people dopamine blockers aren’t quite sliced bread: "General bloodletting is never necessary. It will calm a highly maniacal patient, but so will a sufficiently severe blow on the head."
Thanks you, professor. But i am not a Doctor. Just a french woman search a good médecine for my mother desease. En français, j' ai trouve mais elle est morte...
Thank you Dr. Ghaemi for these recommendations. I think we should add the PDM2 (psychodynamic diagnostic manual) to the list. It relies on a lot of empirical data and helpful to plan management.
A wonderful list. I would say reading "concepts of Psychiatry" was an important experience which made me change my mind before I almost dropped out of Psychiatry residency.
Hi Sammy. Thanks for that wonderful comment about Concepts. It's an old book, a reflection of my youth in the profession. I'm glad it was helpful to you.
Any thoughts on Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (Nancy McWilliams)? Reading now and enjoying but realize her framework and yours likely do not overlap.
Here are my top 6:
1. Bernard Carroll's Twitter Feed: In between slagging off Donald Trump, Barnie manages to pack more clinical insights than most textbooks. Always logical, scientific, biological, rational, and aimed "to carve nature at its joints.". His jabs at Frances make Frances's new found antipsychaitry rhetoric look a bit silly - how about precision, not pragmatism?
2. Clinical Psychiatry: A Text-Book for Students and Physicians
Better than you don’t remember. Still the most vivid descriptions of mania and melancholia ever recorded, and dementia praecox deserves a second look.
3. Études cliniques sur les maladies mentales et nerveuses by Jules Falret
This is mostly the compiled works and notes of his father, Jean-Pierre. If I recall, it opens with an erudite rundown of diagnostic and etiological controversies that would put many on the DSM task force to shame.
4. Des maladies mentales considérées sous les rapports médical, hygiénique et médico-légal by Jean-Étienne Esquirol
The illustrations are excellent, the descriptions of cases vivid, and like Falret, he doesn’t do a half-bad job of tackling some of the thorny diagnostic and statistical issues. It's tentative and in it's infancy, but he has a more cogent understanding of the logical issues than manymodern academics. The treatments are a curiosity; he doesn’t favor digitalis but thinks there might be something to cupping and cauterization. He keeps a hot poker ready to scare off histrionics and hysterics, which is quite awful but shows his curiosity about these effects.
5. Mania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder by David Healy
I think Healy actually edges out Shorter on this one, especially with the North Wales Hospital records. I often think Healy's ideas are as misunderstood as Ghaemi's. Lest one think Healy is uncritical, he opens with a few gentle critiques of his peers. It takes the whole book to realize that he's not saying Kraepelin's disease is overdiagnosed, but rather the disease Kraepelin described has been replaced by a more cyclical course that tracks eerily with the drugs used to treat it. Healy isn’t too concerned about tricyclics in the melancholic phase, but before you think he's having a crack at Ghaemi, Healy's words may actually echo Koukouplos's observations that all drugs modify the frequency of cycling in some way, not just "antidepressants." - "attenuation" does not always equal "stabelization"
6. Treatise on Diseases of the Nervous System by William Alexander Hammond
Good clinical descriptions and I believe the first recorded use of lithium treatment (I want to really dig through Silas Weir Mitchell's lithium work though) I often quote Hammond’s thoughts on "general bloodletting" when trying to persuade people dopamine blockers aren’t quite sliced bread: "General bloodletting is never necessary. It will calm a highly maniacal patient, but so will a sufficiently severe blow on the head."
Thanks you, professor. But i am not a Doctor. Just a french woman search a good médecine for my mother desease. En français, j' ai trouve mais elle est morte...
Thank you Dr. Ghaemi for these recommendations. I think we should add the PDM2 (psychodynamic diagnostic manual) to the list. It relies on a lot of empirical data and helpful to plan management.
Noted! Will get started on these. Thanks!
A wonderful list. I would say reading "concepts of Psychiatry" was an important experience which made me change my mind before I almost dropped out of Psychiatry residency.