Blaming the Brain: The Truth about Drugs and Mental Health: Amazon.co.uk: Elliot S. Valenstein: Books

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4.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommend, but could have been shorter, 16 April 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Blaming the Brain: The Truth about Drugs and Mental Health (Hardcover)

I recommend this book to anyone dealing with mental illness. It does a rigorous job of making its point: that the CHEMICAL theories you hear espoused most everywhere about the cause and treatment of mental illnesses lack supporting evidence. He makes his point by considering the science, politics and economics that come into play.

I would have given the 5-star rating were it not for the fact that he seems to have stretched out the book. There is unnecessary repetition and sometimes needless detail. The meat is there, but also some fat.

A minor objection: there could have been more said about the ramifications of the difficulties that he identifies from the patients' point of view. He exposes the bad science, but it's the patient that has suffered most as a consequence. I suspect that if he had a close family member with a serious mental illness that his emphasis might have been somewhat different. Also most of us with a loved one suffering from schizophrenia do not like them to be referred to as "a schizophrenic". I realize that it is awkward to avoid that concise usage, but if you don't avoid it, you reduce the person who has many strengths and admirable and enjoyable qualities to a dehumanized label.

Hope the book will create a lot of discussion and expose the current dogma and lead to less constrained thinking among practitioners who are treating our loved ones.

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Campaign for Reason, 13 April 2003

By	Yon - See all my reviews

Brilliant book. It describes in careful detail the basis (or lack thereof) for that universally accepted mantra stating that mental disorders are due to a "biochemical imbalance in the brain".

This book is at odds with an enormously powerful mental health establishment that has come to espouse biological reductionism not only at the expense of any attention to the human, but also with utter disregard of science.

Independant thinkers have always been regarded with suspicion and hostility by the establishment of their time. I suppose one can find some comfort in the fact that while the members of the Inquisition have long since died and turned to dust, the earth continues to revolve around the sun - and not the other way around.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is mental health only a balancing act?, 11 Mar 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Blaming the Brain: The Truth about Drugs and Mental Health (Hardcover)

Well documented and sequenced details lead us to questions about current dogmas dealing with mental health. We are not asked to give up what works but rather to ask if it really works as well as the salesmen attest. Perhaps we should be asking for better pharmacological rationale than the old chemical balance/imbalance stories promulgated since the fifties. It seems unwise to give up on psychotherapy and searching for new approaches just because pharmaceuticals currently oil the healthcare machinery. Who knows -- maybe drugs work just because we believe they do.