5 books about Clinical Psychology

What to read about psychological disorders, their diagnosis and human experiences.

The recommended collection has books, which will serve as the introduction for those who are interested in clinical psychology, as well as more complex work that requires special training. You can learn from them, that person is going through at the time of depression and psychosis, and to understand the personality types and characteristics of their development.

• 1.Arnhild Lauveng. “Tomorrow I have always been a lion.”

It's an amazing book about human experiences during psychosis. Arnhild Lauveng, being a professional psychologist, an incredibly thin and at the same time, is available world describes his experiences during a mental disorder (schizophrenia), which managed to win. The author was able to draw clear parallels between the characteristics of his personality before the illness and content of psychotic symptoms, illustrating the relationship and the nature of mental disorders. For example, its high demands on himself and perfectionism resulted in psychosis in the "Captain" - hallucinatory character, punishing and punishing the girl Arnhild for minor defects and failures. Particularly valuable in this book is the author's thinking about the dynamics of communication disorders and of the behavior of the people around the patient. Arnhild very clearly illustrates the idea that genuine human attitude surrounding the "hit" the wall of psychosis and gives the patient support in the chaos of his inner world. The book emphasizes the importance of dialogue with the patient, understanding his feelings, and ability in spite of everything to be with him in a personal way.

• 2.Luria “Romantic essays.”

The book of well-known neuropsychologist Luria includes two of his works, "The little book of big memory" and "Lost and returned the world." The first is devoted to describing the life of the famous Russian mnemonist S.V.Shereshevskogo which the author observed a period of thirty years. Luria described the mechanisms of such amazing memory, the essence of which lies in synesthesia, ie the ability to associate objects with memorized images in a variety of modalities. The tragedy of this man was that he remembered everything, including - something that does not make sense. As a result, the hero of the book was in some sense "lost" in the world overflowing of his images that he "saw" but I could not feel.

The second is devoted to the analysis of the other amazing clinical case - the case of a patient with a gunshot wound to the parietal-occipital region of the brain that resulted in a violation of the mental processes: memory, attention, perception, speech. The drama of this story lies in the fact that the areas of the brain associated with emotion and motivation, were intact. This made the hero of the book difficult to experience their violations and, at the same time, make a tremendous job of their compensation, infinitely tiny to move forward, "millimeter" steps. In parallel with the patient's diary entries Luria provides the reader with information about the main functional units of the brain in a simple and accessible way.

• 3.M.Golant, S.Golant “If someone you love is depressed.”

In recent decades there has been a steady increase in the prevalence of depression in developed countries. Depression is close to us, even if you shy away from us. We sometimes do not know what to do and how to help family, friends or co-workers who are suffering from this disease. One of the authors of the book - Mitch Golant - he was a teenager hard way due to the mother's depression that influenced his decision to become a psychologist. Why is it important to read this book? - It gives an idea about the myths associated with depression; about the feelings experienced by the people in a state of depression; on types of depression; its causes. Perhaps the most important is that the authors pay great attention to the influence of the state of depression experienced by one person at a state close to him people. To treat depression you can by Afobazol, Phenibut, Phenazepam and so on. In the book you can find answers to many questions about how best to behave and where to draw strength, if you regularly communicate with a person suffering from depression. In my opinion, the book is valuable because it gives the reader accessible to the layman-form information about medical treatment of depression and the main types of antidepressants. For Russians, the theme of psychotropic drugs is a very negative painted in connection with the use of the purpose of repression in the Soviet Union. In the minds of people, there are many myths regarding these drugs, and these myths are useful to correlate with reality.

• 4.N.McWilliams “Psychoanalytic diagnosis: Understanding personality structure in the clinical process.”

Nancy McWilliams book is devoted to the modern psychoanalytic understanding of personality types and levels of development. This work affects the harmony, clarity and simplicity of presentation that, as a rule, is not typical of the psychoanalytic literature, beginning with the work of the founder of psychoanalysis - Freud. The book will be very useful for those who want to understand the complex mechanisms of human nature. The author is very exciting, using examples from the personal experience of psychotherapy, it plunges us into the world of people with different types of character (hysterical, depressive, paranoid, etc.) through a description of the characteristic of these types of emotions, defense mechanisms, patterns of family relations. Knowing how a person's personality and character, helps to better understand himself, to explain the behavior and actions of people and build relationships more effectively. Of course, this book is addressed to specialists and its reading requires knowledge of certain terms and theoretical concepts. However, people who are interested in psychology, probably derive from it a lot of useful, especially if you will be able to attract additional sources to clarify unfamiliar terminology.

• 5.Clinical Psychology in 4 toms.

Wonderful A.B.Holmogorova textbook is the first volume of a 4-volume work in clinical psychology. This book describes the modern concepts of domestic and foreign scientists - clinical psychologists - on the mechanisms of formation of psychic norm and pathology. This is the basic theoretical foundations on which to build scientific research in clinical psychology and clinical psychologists work practitioners. The interested reader will find in this book the answers to the following questions: What criteria can make the conclusion that the person suffers from a mental disorder? What is sanity? Is mental illness a disease? What is the ratio of psychiatry, clinical psychology and psychotherapy? Are there differences between the Russian and Western clinical psychology? The special value of this work lies in the fact that the answers to these and many other questions are justified by analysis of reliable scientific research.