The Concept of Psychiatry: A Pluralistic Approach to the Mind and Mental Issues

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This interesting and well-written volume can both enhance the reader’s conceptual approach to understanding psychiatry and mental illness and also assist the reader’s avoidance of dogmatism on the one hand and conceptual "glibness" on the other. The author’s main purpose is "to explore the conceptual basis of the understanding and treatment of mental illness" (xxi). He also includes an important section on ethics and is an advocate for his version of pluralism. Ghaemi contrasts pluralism with the commonly endorsed eclecticism. He criticizes the latter as avoiding the important and real differences in the utilization of one particular approach in contrast to another.