A Democratic Mind

Psychology and Psychiatry with Fewer Meds and More Soul

By (author) Israel W. Charny Foreword by Allen Frances

Not available to order

Publication date:

25 July 2017

Length of book:

228 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498561402

A Democratic Mind: Psychology and Psychiatry with Fewer Meds and More Soul focuses on how an individual lives one’s life, and on the extent of harm that an individual can inflict on oneself or others. In this book, Charny provides a new lens for treating real people rather than offering treatments that alleviate symptoms.

Foreword, by Allen Frances, M.D.
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction: Coming Back Home from the Study of Genocide to Everyday Psychopathology
and PsychotherapyPart I: Applying the Concept of Democratic Mind to Treating Emotional Disorders, Breakdowns of Relationships and Disorders of Evil
Chapter 1: Democratic Mind: A Different Lens for Understanding and Treating for Psychological Health
Chapter 2: Understanding Totalitarian Meanings in Relationship Disorders and Psychopathology
Part II: Psychological Health, the Woes of DSM, and Multiple Schools of Therapy
Chapter 3: Psychological Health: Protecting and Improving the Quality of Life: My Own Life and the Lives of Others
Chapter 4: A Basic Question for Psychiatry and Psychology: How Much Can We Try to Cure the Mind through the Body?
Chapter 5: DSM-Thinking is Oblivious to the Human Condition: Returning Psychiatry to the Unconscious, Human Relationships, and Value Choices
Chapter 6: The Wisdom and Tools of Multiple Schools of Psychotherapy
Afterword
Appendix: Prescriptions for a Free and Democratic Mind
Bibliography

The release of A Democratic Mind could not be at a better time, as the world contends with polarizing forces that pit tribal populism against global democratic principles. Israel W. Charny offers a metaphor of the ‘Fascist versus Democratic Mind’ as a new framework with which to understand symptoms and direct treatment. Like Albert Bandura’s Moral Disengagement, Charny offers readers an approach to assessment and psychotherapy that is firmly grounded in democratic, life-affirming values, and that emphasizes the choice between good and evil. He expands assessment of the rigid, fascist mind—how we humans hurt ourselves—to how we also hurt others. The addition of these relational considerations is critical for a full understanding of the human condition. To be mentally healthy in the twenty-first century is to cultivate calm in the midst of uncertainty, to embrace and learn from diversity, and to hold our own and others’ behaviors accountable as life-affirming. Charny offers an empowering and integrative psychotherapy to achieve these goals. We need this approach now more than ever.