Psychiatric Diagnosis Revisited

Stijn Vanheule is a clinical psychologist and a professor at Ghent University, Belgium. He is also a privately practicing psychoanalyst and a member of the New Lacanian School for Psychoanalysis. He is the author of The Subject of Psychosis: A Lacanian Perspective and Diagnosis and the DSM – A Critical Review.

• Introduction.- Chapter 1. Dynamics of Decision Making: The Issue of Reliability in Diagnosis.- Chapter 2. Symptom and Context: The Issue of Validity in Diagnosis.- Chapter 3. From Mental Suffering to Mental Disorder and Back Again.- Chapter 4. Working with Clinical Case Formulation: Methodological Considerations.

"This book ... is rigorously developed, authentic and open, and balanced in terms of taking the contextual perspective of the other as starting point. The case formulation approach is particularly suitable in the area of psychosis ... counterbalancing the toxic effects of the schizophrenia diagnosis and the meaning of devastating brain disease that has become associated with it. I would recommend it to all looking for a respectful and informative way to describe mental distress in the context of psychosis." (Jim van Os, Psychosis, Vol. 19 (2), May, 2017)