Back to Life, Back to Normality: Volume 1: Cognitive Therapy, Recovery and Psychosis

I wanted to read this book because I am familiar with the cognitive therapy techniques pioneered by the late Dr. Albert Ellis and have a great deal of respect for the man and his work. The publisher says the book is "[w]ritten specifically with sufferers and carers in mind, to help them understand and apply the basic concepts of cognitive therapy for psychosis". That claim made me very curious. My mental image of psychotics is of people who are completely out of touch with reality. I am glad that I took the time to read the book. While I am not a carer or a psychotic, I was surprised to learn as much as I did about caring for psychotics, what psychosis actually is and how cognitive therapy can be applied not only by carers, the expression denoting those who care for psychotics in various ways and can include not only professionals, such as nurses, but family as well, but also by the psychotic person. I can't really rate the book as a carer: I'm not one. And I don't think I am a psychotic. But the book still proved to be unusually interesting and informative. It describes the wide range of psychotic thinking, some of which is just barely removed from "normal" thinking. The concept of normalcy is also discussed. The application of cognitive therapy by carers and psychotics themselves lends to some fascinating discussions. (Nine authors contributed to the volume.) I don't know how to describe the audience for this book outside its intended one of carers and sufferers. If it weren't for my prior knowledge of Dr. Ellis and his theories of cognitive therapy, I wouldn't have been interested. The book certainly broadened by knowledge of what psychosis is and how cognitive therapy can be used by those supporting and caring for a psychotic and the psychotic patient themselves. An unusual read for someone not directly involved, but a good one. Jerry

Back to Life, Back to Normality: Cognitive Therapy, Recovery and Psychosis is exactly what it's title claims. It is a guide in Cognitive Therapy for those who suffer from psychosis. I come at this book as a parent of a schizophrenic son and a psychology student. The best part of this book is the structure. The chapters are broken down into smaller sections usually about a page or shorter. This makes it easier to focus on one section at a time. There are lot of examples, and the authors try to take into account the readers own unique perspectives, both from their culture/religion as well as their unique mental states. The book is very interactive. When you read about hearing voices the reader is encouraged to share their experiences and feelings. Yet, it is more like the safety of a diary then having to voice those feelings out loud. This book is is very innovative and very necessary. It is a sort of self healing as well as a self education. I only wish they would write a similar book geared towards a more juvenile audience!

I have to be honest, I wasn't too sure this book would be very "layman friendly" when I ordered it. Judging from the list of contributing writers I figured it would be filled more with technical jargon and hard to understand medical/psychiatric verbiage than something easy to read and understand. Much to my delight it is in fact an excellent resource! It does have portions that are clearly aimed at the mental health professional, but those are not too overwhelming to follow. What I found most helpful were the exercises that provide an assignment and methods to work through specific issues. the examples and case studies given also prove to provide insightful background and context for each section. I am not a mental health professional, but I do a lot work with grief support groups and have a teenage child who suffers from mild depression/anxiety. While this book is aimed most towards schizophrenia patients and those who care for them, many of the cognitive therapy techniques introduced in the book have been helpful. As Aaron Beck, MD wrote in his review (found on the back of the book) "this book contains many nuggets of common sense wisdom, which, when applied begin to help...." I couldn't have said it better myself. By writing with this "common sense wisdom" approach, the authors have made this a book that is a great resource for caregivers as well as those suffering from mental illnesses.

When I was in training, I was taught that any form of therapy was not really helpful in psychotic disorders. The teachers subscribed to the old adage: "you can't reason with a sick mind", and neurosis means 2+2=5 and you dont like it while psychosis means you are happy with it. This book corrects these old myths. The fact that Aaron Beck wrote the foreward gives the book a great amount of credibility. Basically this book is a self help guide for the patient, carer, and therapist. It gets into great detail on methods that help psychotics learn to cope with the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The guide even includes homework projects that can be used in a wide array of circumstances. I have tried some of the techniques in the guide on some of my own patients and also myself as a caregiver and found them to be beneficial. Granted, the guide assumes that the psychotic patient has been treated to the degree that they are able to complete the work of CBT as described, but this is the case of the majority of Psychotic patients today. I would not recommend the guide to anyone who has a thought disorder to the degree that they could not perform even rudimentary CBT. With modern antipsychotic drugs, and supportive psychotherapy, CBT as described in the guide can be very useful both for managing symptoms and behavior, as well as increasing the self esteem of all involved. CBT in psychotic disorders is endorsed by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence in the UK as a valuable adjunct in the treatment of psychosis. I recommend this guide for the Patient, caregiver at home, the therapist, primary care doctor, and therapist in training. It is a commonsense, novel approach at the use of CBT in psychotic disorders.

While the numerous authors of this book do not publish any credentials, the book is endorsed by Aaron T. Beck. M.D. Presumably, their expertise is based on technical study and experience. This is reasonable, in my opinion, because cognitive behavior therapy seems to be really more of an art than a science. The authors focus a lot on de-stigmatizing mental illness. In fact, they have written this book especially for persons with mental illness - who suffer anything from stress disorders to schizophrenia - and for their caregivers. After all, even schizophrenia is just another illness that can be treated with medication and cognitive behavior therapy. The book is full of case histories and examples of how to deal with specific problems - such as hearing voices. Medication management, both pills and injections are also well covered. Even advise for using the book to assist professional and other caregivers, helping to keep them straight and steady. Thoughts, behavior, and feelings are discussed in very practical ways, as is venerability and cognition. The nature of emotional events causing the blocking of cognition and other problems are thoroughly discussed (some even diagrammed). I would certainly recommend this book to anyone suffering from mental health problems, lay persons who take care of someone afflicted with mental illness, and people who just want to know how to handle difficult people.