Abstract
The Encyclopaedia of mental health is a comprehensive reference text arguing for a broad definition of mental health. The aim of the editors is ambitious: they seek to offer an inclusive biopsychosocial overview of mental health using a multilevel depth of analysis. It takes up the debates and controversies that have engaged mental health professionals over the last decade. The parameters of this analysis range from the genetic to the sociocultural. The intended audience is a general one: ‘students in health professions; popular writers; allied professionals such as lawyers'. To these ends, the text has truly ‘something for everyone’ with breadth obviously trumping depth of analysis. The editors have chosen eminent academics and clinicians, the majority from American Departments of Psychology, to provide the contributions. They represent significant expertise in their areas of contribution. Some psychiatrists have also made contributions to the encyclopaedia. In keeping with the generalised emphasis, the bibliographies offer brief current lists for further perusal. These lists provide only an introductory survey of available material. Useful cross-referencing is included. The index is well organised, but only appears at the end of the third volume. This creates difficulty for quick referencing.
With the psychiatrist/psychiatrist-in-training specifically in mind, the collection offers a rich complementary reference to a standard psychiatric text. There are several areas that stand out here. The chapters that discuss mental health from a developmental context are concise and provide useful overviews for the clinician, covering areas such as ‘ageing and mental health’ and menopause. I experimented here and looked up ‘adolescence’ with the clinical management of this group in mind. What I found was a very sophisticated but clinically practical developmental framework.
Topics relevant to social and cultural psychiatry are very well represented and reflect the text's emphasis on the ‘normal’ as well as pathological. Issues such as unemployment, social support, social networks racism and mental health, poverty and mental health, human and computer interaction, divorce and physical crowding are canvassed. The chapters on key disorders offer little more than a concise student overview and are weakest with respect to the biological approach. There is a range of chapters on emotional life and human states: guilt; humour; deception; aggression; and creativity. These provide a broad social context, and thus the links to psychiatric disorder forms only a small part of the material here. The chapters discussing classification and non-traditional approaches are a challenging read for those starting out and those who need to be restarted. The myth of mental illness by Thomas Szasz is a particularly good example of this.
Overall, the collection is a worthy addition to a reference library, particularly for a psychiatrist-in-training wishing to complement standard texts within the area of developmental psychiatry and social and cultural psychiatry. In some senses, one of its great strengths is the location of psychiatric discourses within the broad range of mental health discourses in the community.