Beyond Madness: Psychosocial Interventions in Psychosis (Therapeutic Communities, 7)

A major question facing psychiatrists today is how to treat psychosis effectively while maintaining patients' dignity, self respect and, as far as possible, their psychological and social functioning. The authors of Beyond Madness have all been associated with the Arbours Crisis Centre in London, a unique facility established in 1973 where therapists and patients, or guests, live together in order to establish a space where extremes of distress can be tolerated, understood and ameliorated. From the psychological and social care offered by the Arbours Crisis Centre, the treatments demonstrated in this significant and exciting book have developed.

The authors discuss team, group and community settings for interventions, and the five stages a guest passes through when at the Centre. They examine special provisions for guests who self-harm, describe the experience of living and working in the Centre, and provide specific examples of interventions at the Centre. The effect of power and money is explored, with a focus on authority, staff relationships with guests, and cost effectiveness.
At a time when biological treatments predominate, Beyond Madness illustrates and argues for a humane, useful and cost-effective alternative to traditional, physical, psychiatric interventions.