Paul R. McHugh

"From strenuous opposition to physician-assisted suicide to a conviction that sex-correction surgery for newborn in cruel and misguided, Dr. Paul R. McHugh's opinions are strong and often controversial. In this collection of essays, McHugh demonstrates why he is one of the most thought-provoking figures in the academic world." "These pieces argue for a realistic appraisal of just what psychiatrists know and how they know it, with the aim of indicating how such knowledge can best be used not only for better patient care but also to reflect on and influence public issues and social movements. His essays will stimulate professional and popular discussion about the goals and effectiveness of current psychiatric practice." "McHugh sorts through the layers of what he terms the "culturally driven misdirection of psychiatry and psychotherapy" to explain concepts often misunderstood by nonscholars and the intellectual community alike."--BOOK JACKET.

Substantially revised to include a wealth of new material, the second edition of this work provides a concise, coherent introduction that brings structure to an increasingly fragmented and amorphous discipline. The authors offer an approach that emphasizes psychiatry's unifying concepts while accommodating its diversity. Recognizing that there may never be a single, all-encompassing theory, the book distills psychiatric practice into four explanatory methods: diseases, dimensions of personality, goal-directed behaviors, and life stories. These perspectives, argue the authors, underlie the principles and practice of all psychiatry. With an understanding of these fundamental methods, readers will be equipped to organize and evaluate psychiatric information and to develop a confident approach to practice and research.

Together they searched for Isobel's past After the car accident impaired her memory, Isobel St. Aubyn had only haunting flashbacks and the evasive accounts of her family to bring back her past. Until she met Eliot Richardson. Torn between hostility and desire for Isobel, the cold intimidating banker was strangely determined to help her. 'If your past won't come back to you,'' he said, "you should go and look for it.' As they traveled from Devon to Morocco, revisiting scenes from her past, Isobel fell deeply in love. But there was so much more she needed to know about her life ... about Eliot.

One–time professional gambler Scott Crane hasn't returned to Las Vegas, or held a hand of cards, in ten years. But troubling nightmares about a strange poker game he once attended on a houseboat on Lake Mead –– a contest he believed he walked away from a big winner –– are drawing him back to the magical city. Because the mythic game did not end that night in 1969. And the price of his winnings was his soul. And now a pot far more strange and perilous than he ever could imagine depends on the turning of a card.