Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Abnormal Psychology

The first of Halgin's books (2000) did a pretty fair job of addressing and clarifying the major issues of the 1990s. The fifth edition covers some of the same material (sometimes in more modern fashion), as well as ten or so newer issues. I was surprised at some of the exclusions. Dissociative identity, empirically supported therapies, de-institutionalization, and religious factors in treatment success are gone now. I run into flaps about these topics all the time (in 2010). The case presentations and counter arguments are not always "perfectly" presented or adequately referenced (at least for me), but they are informative and thought-provoking. Many new MA and MS graduates are probably up to speed on some of these issue, but if they didn't run into this book in school, and they're just wading into the waters, I'd strongly endorse buying one of these and reading it carefully. Most will benefit from the experience of identifying, questioning and revising less-informed beliefs to help us practice what we preach: acceptance of irresolvable ambiguity and conflict to de-polarize our own black-or-white, all-or-nothing, all-good-or-all-bad, all-right-or-all-wrong beliefs, values, attitudes, assumptions and convictions. RG, Psy.D.

This book was a great help with my previous class. It was very informative and I learned alot.

nice transaction- book was recieved in a timely fashion and in the condition described- Thanks!!!