Title: Theoretical Alternatives to the Psychiatric Model of Mental Disorder Labeling
Subtitle: Contemporary Frameworks, Taxonomies, and Models
Subject Classification:  Psychology, Counselling, Healthcare  
BIC Classification: JM, MMH, MQU
BISAC Classification: PSY036000, MED058180, PSY028000
Binding: Hardback, Paperback, eBook
Publication date: 01 Feb 2024
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-80441-276-3
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-80441-277-0
ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-80441-473-6

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Description

Theoretical Alternatives to the Psychiatric Model of Mental Disorder Labeling is the fourth Volume of the Ethics International Press Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry Series. Understanding the current systems of psychology and psychiatry is profoundly important. So is exploring alternatives. The Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry Series presents solicited chapters from international experts on a wide variety of underexplored subjects. This is a series for mental health researchers, teachers, and practitioners, for parents and interested lay readers, and for anyone trying to make sense of anxiety, depression, and other emotional difficulties. Theoretical Alternatives recognizes and appreciates those who have contributed to the abundance of literature critiquing the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the biomedical model of mental health, and the practice of psychiatric diagnosing. It intends to move past that discourse, and present macro and system-level alternatives to DSM and the ICD diagnosing (the World Health Organization’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems), in the form of conceptually developed frameworks, taxonomies, and models to guide clinical work and theory.

Biography

Editor(s):  Arnoldo Cantú, LCSW is a clinical social worker with experience in school social work and community mental health working with children, adolescents, and their families in a clinical capacity. He is undertaking Doctoral research at Colorado State University (CSU) with an interest in researching conceptual and practical alternatives to the DSM. Dr. Eric Maisel, Ph.D., is a former family therapist, based in California, USA, who works actively as a creativity coach. He is the author of many books on creativity, psychology, and mental health, among them The Future of Mental Health, Humane Helping, and Rethinking Depression. Dr. Chuck Ruby, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran and a licensed psychologist in private practice in southern Maryland who has been offering psychotherapy services for more than 25 years.

Reviews

"Theoretical Alternatives to the Psychiatric Model of Mental Disorder Labeling" feels like opening a window in a stuffy room that's needed fresh air for decades. This collection, brought together by Cantú, Maisel, and Ruby, doesn't just take shots at the DSM and ICD—it offers us something better to put in their place. What I found most refreshing is how the book moves beyond just criticizing (though it does that brilliantly) to actually showing us what mental health care could look like if we stopped reducing people's complex lives to diagnostic codes. The authors ask us to consider radical but surprisingly sensible questions: What if someone's depression isn't a brain malfunction but a reasonable response to genuinely depressing circumstances? What if we described experiences rather than labeled disorders? The ideas are deep but presented in a way that anyone—whether you're a therapist, researcher, or just someone trying to make sense of your own struggles—can actually understand and use. This book comes at exactly the right moment, when more and more people are questioning whether being diagnosed with a "disorder" actually helped them heal. Instead of asking "what's wrong with you?" these writers champion an approach that wonders "what happened to you?"—a shift that changes everything about how we understand suffering. What impressed me was that these aren't just pie-in-the-sky theories; the contributors actually address how these ideas could work in the real world of insurance forms and time-limited therapy. For anyone who's ever felt misunderstood, reduced, or even harmed by psychiatric labels, this book isn't just intellectually exciting—it's personally liberating. It's like finding allies who not only validate your doubts about the current system but show you there are other ways forward that honor your full humanity and complexity."
- Nafees Alam, Ph.D., LMSW, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Nebraska