Book Reviews Articles

Listed by most recent articles first.

• The Lonely Screams: Understanding the Complex World of the Lonely
  Loneliness is certainly a common human experience; even if you’ve been lucky enough to feel it only briefly, or rarely, you know the misery of it, the actual physical pain of it. Arising from a ...
• The Memory Palace: A Memoir
  We children of schizophrenics are the great secret-keepers, the ones who don’t want you to think anything is wrong (p. 5). Author Mira Bartok has encapsulated in this statement her life as the daughter of mentally ...
• The Alzheimer’s Family: Helping Caregivers Cope
  If you were asked to name a terminal illness, it is likely that Alzheimer's would not be your first choice.  However, from my own perspective, when you consider that there is no cure for this ...
• Nothing: A Portrait of Insomnia
  From the first sentence, Blake Butler’s poetic voice is clear. He writes: “Into the version of the sky above my house one afternoon when I was twelve, the nearby high school released a flood of ...
• After Schizophrenia
  I was not sure what to expect when I first opened Margaret Hawkins’ After Schizophrenia. Memoirs about people suffering from mental illness are quite common these days and I was interested to see if the ...
• What a Life Can Be
  In “What a Life Can Be: One Therapist’s Take on Schizo-Affective Disorder,” Carolyn Dobbins, PhD offers an insightful look into the evolution of a successful mental health professional with a challenging diagnosis:  schizo-affective disorder.  In an ...
• Find the Upside of the Down Times
  Some people have all the bad luck, and by any measure Rob Pennington, author of Find the Upside of the Down Times, has had more than his fair share. He was shot in the chest, ...
• Sexual Trauma: A Challenge Not Insanity
  Dr. K. Elan Jung’s Sexual Trauma: A Challenge Not Insanity is a strong reference, written for a wide audience including physicians, therapists, victims and the general layperson.  Dr. Jung is a practicing psychiatrist who has ...
• Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia
  Between three and six percent of all teens struggle with some type of eating disorder, be it bulimia, binge eating, or anorexia. Because these illnesses involve eating, they seem to take a blow at family ...
• 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done
  In 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done, Peter Bregman doesn’t offer a slew of strategies to accomplish all your activities per day. What he does offer is an ...
• Childhood Psychological Disorders: Current Controversies
  Childhood Psychological Disorders: Current Controversies by Alberto M. Bursztyn is the latest edition to the “Making Sense of Psychology” series. This series concerns itself with the psychological problems and challenges in the lives of today’s ...
• House and Psychology: Humanity is Overrated
  When I was a psychology major, part of our lab work involved observing people through a one-way mirror.  In House and Psychology: Humanity is Overrated, edited by Drs. Ted Cascio and Leonard Martin, the one-way ...
• The Natural Medicine Guide to Bipolar Disorder
  Having a special interest in how diet & physical activity help ease the symptoms of mood disorders, I was excited to review Stephanie Marohn’s book The Natural Medicine Guide to Bipolar Disorder.  This review covers ...
• A Cluttered Life: Searching for God, Serenity, and My Missing Keys
  A Cluttered Life: Searching for God, Serenity, and My Missing Keys is written for anyone who has felt the pull between the chaos of everyday living and the longing for a rich spiritual life.  Pesi ...
• Transform Your Life Now
  If you Google the phrase "transform your life," you get results showing you how to do just that in 5 easy ways, in less than 30 minutes, with 10 technologies, by 10 truths, or in ...
• How To Change Your Drinking: A Harm Reduction Guide To Alcohol
  Substance misuse is one of the most common and widely discussed topics within the mental health community, as both clients and professionals debate the most effective ways to deal with addictions and their causes. In the ...
• Fat People
  For his book Fat People, Bill Schubart has created and gathered a collection of stories that will make you rethink your relationship with food. Schubart is smart, sensitive and unnervingly keen at noticing details.  The ...
• Private Practice Made Simple
  There are plenty of books and websites out there offering advice to mental health professionals who want to know how to establish their own private practice. With this new release Randy J. Paterson, PhD offers ...
• The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time
  David Sloan Wilson’s The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time, sports a misleading title. While it does contain teachings that hint at ways we might improve our municipalities, ...
• Keeping Your Child in Mind
  A 3-year-old is happily playing on the floor near his mommy’s feet as she works on her laptop.  Unknowingly, she knocks a ballpoint pen onto the floor.  The little boy picks up the ballpoint pen, ...
• Seeing Ezra: A Mother’s Story of Autism, Unconditional Love, and the Meaning of Normal
  Autism is viewed as a tragedy. As a disorder that robs children of their lives and parents of their children. It’s a disorder that must be properly diagnosed and treated. And the younger it’s caught ...
• Trauma Essentials: The Go-To Guide
  Trauma Essentials: The Go-To Guide by Babette Rothschild is a reference book for clinician and client alike. Rothschild has successfully taken the enormously complex subject of trauma therapy and recovery and broken it down into ...
• Kids On Meds: Up-to-Date Information About the Most Commonly Prescribed Psychiatric Medications
  Kids On Meds by Dr. Kevin T. Kalikow is both an education and a go-to guide for the medical professional and layman alike. Parents will find this book particularly informative, whether they want to know ...
• Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame
  George N. Collins, MA, and his co-writer Andrew Adleman, MA, in Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame provide a guide away from the cyclic, reactive, addictive, superficial and thus ...
• The Confidence Gap: A Guide to Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt
  A shaky self-confidence or relentless self-doubt stops many people from pursuing their passions. A fear of failure gnaws at them, leaving them at a standstill and unsatisfied with their lives. If you know what I’m ...