Jessica Flitter
West Bend East High School, West Bend, WI
[email protected]
​
The Horse That Won’t Go Away:  Clever Hans, Facilitated Communication and the Need for Clear Thinking
Author(s): Heinzen, T.E, Lilienfeld, S.O. and Nolan, S.A.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4641-4574-2

APA Style Citation
Heinzen, T. E., Lilienfeld, S. O., & Nolan, S. A. (2015). The horse that won't go away: Clever Hans, facilitated communication and the need for clear thinking. New York: Worth, a Macmillan Education imprint.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Horse-That-Wont-Go-Away/dp/1464145741

​Book Description
Psychology is a science! The authors of The Horse That Won’t Go Away emphasize that clear, critical thinking is the “hallmark of psychological science." Sometimes we make mental mistakes that can lead to bad decisions, poor investments, and failed social programs, but clear thinking and the scientific approach helps prevent us from fooling ourselves or others. “Making psychological science available to the public- and helping people apply it to their daily lives” is why the authors wrote this book.
 
The first part of the book tells the story of Clever Hans, the infamous horse that could count. Wilhelm von Osten, a retired math teacher, taught his horse how to tap the ground as he answered various mathematical questions.  This amazing feat took place in Berlin, Germany and gained public attention in the early 1900s.  From there, the story of Clever Hans was fostered by the media, vivid public demonstrations, validation by experts, and incredible explanations.  The authors take you through a detailed description of von Osten’s mission, his endorsement by experts, the media’s misrepresentation of the findings of the Hans Commission, and von Osten’s desire to contribute to the field of science. It was thanks to Oskar Pfungst that we finally found out how Clever Hans was able to complete such amazing feats.  With critical thinking and organized experiment, Pfungst was able to rule out alternative explanations. After the explanation was made public, von Osten himself expressed cognitive dissonance and believed even stronger in his horse's intelligence. At the age of 70, von Osten died "apparently of a broken heart" and was sadly "frustrated in the great goal of his life."   He failed to contribute to science, but his failure opened our eyes to the power of confirmation bias.  Unfortunately, we did not learn from the story of Clever Hans. The United States had their own rock star horses, Beautiful Jim Key on display at the 1904 World’s Fair and Lady Wonder who demonstrated psychic abilities for three questions per dollar.
 
These might just be examples involving horses, but the authors propose a more current example that follows the same pattern. It is known as Clever Hands- the facilitated communication story.  Julian and Thal Wendrow, from Michigan, wanted to communicate with their autistic daughter, Aislinn, who was nonverbal. A keyboard was placed in front of her, and she sat next to a facilitator who held and guided her hand over the letters. Soon Aislinn was composing poems, taking classes, and speaking of her dreams. The miracle therapy seemed to work.  Then, one morning Aislinn communicated with a facilitator at school about sexual abuse that was occurring at home. Her father was arrested and held in jail. The accusations were later found untrue, and he was released, but his and his family’s life was ruined.  The method used by his daughter, facilitated communication, started in Australia and was meant to be used with children with obvious physical disabilities. Then, in the 1990s Douglas Biklen, a professor of special education and sociologist, helped promote its use in the United States for autism, which he viewed as a motor disorder. Biklen was both articulate and persuasive, and the method was quickly adopted in schools. In addition, it was endorsed by the media and famous individuals just like the Clever Hans story.  Just as critical thinking disproved the horse’s supposed intelligence, the method of facilitated communication came apart once researchers demanded the claims be tested. Testimonials and anecdotes would no longer suffice. Experimental tests were introduced, for example, an autistic child was told to spell a word such as “keys” with the facilitator out of the room. The facilitator did not know the word the child was trying to spell, and when the facilitator returned and assisted the child, they were only able to produce nonsense words.  The facilitator has been unconsciously assisting the child in the same way von Osten had been unconsciously cueing his horse. Almost a century later the exact same fatal flaw was occurring.  You would think the story ends here, but instead, facilitated communication has reappeared. In 2004 and 2010 documentaries about autism began to gain the public’s attention once again. Douglas Bilken made a comeback by giving speeches at prestigious institutions and winning awards. Facilitated communication rebranded itself by changing its name to supported typing or rapid prompting.  The Facilitated Communication Institute became known as the Institute for Communication and Inclusion.  Even though the method is unsupported by science, it continues to make its way into homes of families who place much hope into an unsound practice.
 
History is not supposed to repeat itself, and we are supposed to learn from it. However, if you look closely the Clever Hans effect is still present in everyday life. That is, humans still perceive what we want to believe. The authors investigate modern day examples of the effect, such as Potato the math-genius dog, elephants capable of painting self-portraits and landscapes, drug sniffing dogs, the Scared Straight program that terrifies youth in the hope of reducing future criminal behavior, the D.A.R.E. program meant to reduce future drug use, and the Your Baby Can Read video program, to name a few. While the animal tricks sound like fun, the authors point out the other examples play on the human desire to do good for others but can lead to real social harm, such as anxiety, false accusations, and bogus social programs wasting tax payers’ money.  The way to expose these claims for what they are is through critical thinking and the scientific approach. They implore readers to share the story of Clever Hans with each generation.  Von Osten did not make a lasting contribution to science like he wanted, but instead, he taught us the power and necessity of using the scientific approach.  Mental errors without critical thinking can lead to self-deception.  The authors end on the note, “That is why Clever Hans is the horse that won’t go away- and why we don’t want him to.”
Other Related Resources
 
Video Clips Involving Critical Thinking

1. Potato the math-genius dog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUeGKNg39mE
2. Maggie the mathematical dog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAo0MJbsC_g

 
Book Reviews
A book review of The Horse That Won’t Go Away:  Clever Hans, Facilitated Communication and the Need for Clear Thinking compiled by the American Psychological Association for the Psychology Teacher Network.
http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/ptn/2016/05/clever-hans.aspx
 
A book review of The Horse That Won’t Go Away:  Clever Hans, Facilitated Communication and the Need for Clear Thinking compiled for Psych Central, an independent mental health social network maintained by mental health professionals. 
https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-horse-that-wont-go-away-clever-hans-facilitated-communication-the-need-for-clear-thinking/
 
Facilitated Communication 
A series of articles on the controversial method of facilitated communication from the American Psychological Association, the Atlantic, Scientific American, and the Autism Speaks.
http://www.apa.org/research/action/facilitated.aspx

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/a-controversial-method-for-autism-communication/491810/
 
https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2012/01/09/all-children-deserve-access-communication
 
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/if-facilitated-communication-is-a-canard-why-teach-it/
 
Apple Video Released on World Autism Awareness Day
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/apple-releases-films-to-raise-autism-awareness/

Psychological Figures and Concepts 
Sigmund Freud
Clever Hans
Applied behavior analysis (ABA)
Autism
Automatic writing
Availability heuristic
Cognitive dissonance
Confirmation bias
Control group vs. experimental group
Critical thinking
Down syndrome, Turner syndrome, Fetal alcohol syndrome, PKU
ESP
Facilitated communication
False positives and false negatives
Hindsight bias
Illusory correlation
Intellectual disability
Intuition
Methods of elimination
Naïve realism
Phrenology
Prefrontal lobotomy
Regression to the mean
Savants
Shaping
Skepticism
Telepathy

​Just Mercy:  A Story of Justice and Redemption
Author:  Bryan Stevenson
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8496-5
 
APA Style Citation
Stevenson, Bryan (2015). Just Mercy:  A Story of Justice and Redemption.  New York: Random House.

Book Description
Just Mercy is an engaging series of true stories related to the fight for equality in the American justice system.  The memoir describes the journey of the author who dedicated his career to helping those who are the most vulnerable in society.  Stevenson holds degrees from Harvard Law and the Kennedy School of Government and chose to dedicate his talents and career fighting for civil rights law in the South. Stevenson is an attorney who has spent his career working to ensure that the most vulnerable individuals in society such as children, the mentally ill, the poor, and the wrongfully convicted receive a fair trial.  His non-profit organization, the Equal Justice Initiative works to offer legal assistance to those who face discrimination in the justice system. 
 
The book is a combination of historical background information and the detailed accounts of many of Stevenson’s most memorable cases.  One early case involved Walter McMillian, a black man who was wrongly convicted and given the death sentence for the murder of a white woman in Alabama. Despite numerous witness that testified that the accused was at a church fish fry at the time of the crime, McMillian was sentenced based largely on the testimony of three other witnesses.  The trial lasted only one and half days.  After spending six years on death row, Stevenson and the Equal Justice Institute were able to prove that witnesses for the prosecution lied on the stand and that the prosecution had illegally suppressed evidence that would have exonerated Mr. McMillian. 
 
The Equal Justice Institute also helped overturn the wrongful conviction of Marsha Colbey who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after giving birth to a stillborn child.  Ms. Colbey, a poor white woman living in rural Alabama could not afford prenatal care and she and her family buried the stillborn child in a grave near the trailer where they lived.  An investigation began when a neighbor noticed Ms. Colbey was no longer pregnant yet did not have a baby.  A pathologist with a history of creating inaccurate and faulty reports declared that the baby was born alive and died by drowning.  During her trial, the pathologist's report was exposed as inaccurate by the state’s own expert witness, who testified that due to Colbey’s age and lack of prenatal care that a stillbirth likely. The expert witness further stressed that he could not declare a life birth much less a homicide in this case.  The state of Alabama obtained a conviction based on evidence regarding Ms. Colbey’s prior drug use and poverty to present a picture of her as a bad mother who deserved imprisonment.  The Equal Justice Institute was able to win a unanimous decision from the state Supreme Court overturning her conviction based on a failure to provide a fair trial by an impartial jury.  The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences agreed to re-examine the evidence in the case and produced a new autopsy report concluding that there was no evidence that the baby was born alive. 
 
Just Mercy highlights many of the problems in the justice system including flaws in investigations, trials, sentencing, and prison.  The book thoroughly investigates issues related to the intersection between psychology and the law.  The books primarily focus on the problems of mass incarceration, and the effects of prison on children, adolescents, the mentally ill and the intellectually disabled.  Numerous aspects and events in this book can be used to highlight topics in social psychology including racial profiling, implicit prejudice, stereotype threat, and discrimination. 
 
Other Related Resources
 
Author’s Website
The author’ website provides information about the book, the author's biography, links to stories in the book, videos, discussion guides, and ways to get involved in promoting justice.
http://bryanstevenson.com/
 
Author Bryan Stevenson’s TED Talk
The author’s TED talk which has received over 3 million views on the TED site alone.  Considered by many to be the best TED talk ever given.  Stevenson spoke in March of 2012 in front of 1,000 attendees at the TED conference in Long Beach, California.  After an 18-minute presentation, Stevenson received the longest standing ovation in TED history.  Attendees that day spontaneously donated $1 million dollars to his nonprofit (the Equal Justice Institute). 
http://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice?language=en
 
Equal Justice Institute Website
The Equal Justice Initiative is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system.  EJI works with communities that have been marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment.  EJI also prepares reports, newsletters, and manuals to assist advocates and policymakers in the critically important work of reforming the administration of criminal justice.  Photographs and summaries of many of the cases from the book as well as other EJI cases are available on the website.  The website provides a great deal of information on discrimination, the death penalty, mass incarceration, and juvenile justice.
http://www.eji.org/
 
Equal Justice Institute article on the decision of the U.S. Justice Department to end the use of private prisons
http://www.eji.org/news/justice-department-will-phase-out-private-prisons
 
Guardian Article about author Bryan Stevenson – Desmund Tuto calls Stevenson “America’s Mandela.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/01/bryan-stevenson-americas-mandela
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Dorthea Dix
Death Penalty
Death Penalty for children, mentally ill, intellectually disabled
Deinstitutionalization
Discrimination
Equal Justice Initiative
Insanity Defense
Mass Incarceration
Megan’s Law
Prejudice (Explicit and Implicit)
Racial Profiling
Stereotype
Stereotype Threat

​The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without Conscience 
Author:  Kent A. Kiehl PhD
ISBN: 13: 9780770435868
 
APA Style Citation
Kiehl, Kent (2014). The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without Conscience.
New York: Broadway Books.

Book Description
Author Dr. Kent Kiehl is a neuroscientist whose research involves utilizing brain imaging and clinical interviews to study mental illness especially criminal psychopathology.  His research has involved taking mobile fMRI machines into prisons to study the brains of inmates he has determined were psychopaths based on clinical interviews and the Hare Psychopathy Test.  Kiehl is currently a Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Law at the University of New Mexico.  He has compiled brain scans from over 3,000 offenders at eight different prisons.  Dr. Kiehl is the protégé of the world famous expert in psychopaths and creator of the influential psychopath checklist, Dr. Robert Hare. The book opens with Dr. Kiehl’s first encounter with a psychopath during his graduate work at a Canadian prison.  The book traces Kiehl’s career and depicts how a variety of academic experiences led him to become an expert in this field.  His early work using EEGs to examine the brain waves of killer whales, experience with fMRI machines, and clinical work under the leading expert in psychopathy all contributed to this interesting research area.  His research eventually led him to conduct fMRI research on prisoners and has resulted in the discovery of important physiological differences in the brains of psychopaths.  His work provides insight into the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of psychopathy. 
 
The author gives a thorough explanation of a question that comes up in nearly every introductory or abnormal psychology course, “What is the difference between a psychopath, a sociopath, and an individual with antisocial personality disorder?” The term psychopath was first used by the German psychiatrist J.L.A. Koch (1841-1908) to describe individuals who exhibited these traits throughout their entire life history and across most areas of their lives.  Koch narrowed the term to differentiate these individuals from others who were merely criminals.  Koch’s use of the term psychopath was based on biological causes.  This purely biological explanation for psychopathology soon was criticized by the growing influence of Behaviorism.  If individuals were blank slates at birth, then the traits described by Koch would have environmental causes.  The term sociopathy was first used in the 1930’s and was created to describe individuals with the same traits as psychopaths but whose cause was social and not physiological.  The simple answer then is that psychopaths are created by “nature” and sociopaths are created by “nurture.”  For the author, the terms sociopathy and psychopathy are very different.  Sociopathy would involve a very wide range of individuals who behave in antisocial ways as a result of negative environmental influences whereas psychopathy is a concept based on genetics and biology with measurable brain differences. 

Today, psychopathy is diagnosed based on the 20 items of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, the clinical rating tool considered the gold standard for the assessment of psychopathy.  The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised is given by a trained clinician who conducts a semi-structured interview lasting approximately two hours and collects extensive additional files on the individual.  The additional files often include police reports, assessments completed by other mental health workers, family history, employment history, educational records, childhood history, and criminal history.  Based on this information the individual is given a score for each of the 10 traits that describe the affective, impulsive, and antisocial symptoms of psychopathy.  Each item receives a score ranging from 0-2.  A score of 0 indicates that the trait is not present in the individual, a score of 1 indicates the trait describes the individual in some areas of their life, and a score of 2 indicates that the trait is present in all aspects of the individual's life.  The 20 traits on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist- Revised are described in detail in the book and are listed below:

1. Glibness (insincerity or thoughtless) and Superficial Charm
2. Grandiose Sense of Self-Worth
3. Need for Stimulation
4. Pathological Lying
5. Conning/Manipulation
6. Lack of Remorse or Guilt
7. Shallow Affect
8. Callous/Lack of Empathy
9. Parasitic Lifestyle
10. Poor Behavioral Controls
11. Promiscuous Sexual Behavior
12. Early Behavioral Problems
13. Lack of Realistic, Long-Term Goals
14. Impulsivity
15. Irresponsibility
16. Failure to Accept Responsibility for Own Actions
17. Many Short-Term Marital Relationships
18. Juvenile Delinquency
19. Revocation of Conditional Release (Repeated failure to learn from punishments)
20. Criminal Versatility

The author doubts that the average clinician can diagnose psychopaths accurately because they have difficulty reliably detecting the affective criteria such as lack of empathy, guilt, and remorse.  One common mistake that leads to overrating on the affective criteria is an excessive focus on the index crime (the one specific bad thing that the individual did which often leads to arrest).  For an individual to be diagnosed as a psychopath, these traits must be expressed across multiple areas of their lives and have existed for most of their life as evidenced by events from childhood.  One trick that the author suggests is to evaluate the individual on the psychopath checklist without using any information related to the index offense.  An actual psychopath would receive a high rating on traits even if the index offense were not included.  Also, according to the author, non-experts are often prone to giving excessively high scores across all areas if an individual has committed an extremely horrific crime, which may or may not be warranted.  The best way to prevent misdiagnosis is to have clinicians who work with individuals in forensic settings to undergo specialized training. 
 
In a fascinating chapter, the author examines the historical records to evaluate two infamous individuals according to the Psychopath Checklist-Revised.  The two individuals were both nineteenth-century presidential assassins:  John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln and Charles Guiteau, who assassinated President Garfield. The author draws upon the historical record and provides the reader with insight into how the criteria are measured and assessed.  Based on the author’s assessment of the historical record Charles Guiteau scores in the 99th percentile of psychopathy by scoring a 37.5/40 on the Psychopath Checklist-Revised.  John Wilkes Booth, on the other hand, earned an 8.4/40 on the checklist which although is two times the score of the average American male is below average for a criminal and not high enough for a diagnosis of psychopathy.
 
The text also discusses how psychopathy relates to the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder found in the DSM-5.  The DSM does not include psychopathy as a specific diagnosis but does include antisocial personality disorder.  According to Dr. Kiehl, the DSM antisocial personality disorder criteria will result in getting a clinician about halfway to a diagnosis of psychopathy according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised.  If an individual meets the criteria for antisocial personality disorder, then they likely have a very difficult personality.  The author advises that clinicians working in forensic settings not even bother with the antisocial personality criteria but instead begin immediately by using the Psychopath Checklist-Revised instead of the DSM.  Kiehl also provides insight into the DSM diagnosis of conduct disorder, which he believes is flawed because it is based entirely on observable criteria without reference to emotional, interpersonal, or affective characteristics associated with psychopathy.  Since nearly 80% of individuals who are given a conduct disorder diagnosis outgrow the antisocial behaviors, the author argues that it is of little utility because it does not predict which children are likely to develop psychopathy or lifelong personality problems.  Clinicians in secure juvenile facilities do not even bother conducting assessments for conduct disorder since nearly all of the children would meet the criteria.
 
The Psychopath Whisperer offers an amazing level of insight into the diagnosis of psychopathy but also makes a large number of connections to various units across the psychology curriculum.  As a result, the book is an excellent resource to add high-interest material to units including the biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, abnormal and treatment, motivation, and emotion, personality, testing and individual differences, learning, and cognition.
 
Other Related Resources

Author’s Websites
http://kentkiehl.com/
The author’s site includes links to articles related to neuroscience, law, and psychopathy as well as videos and other resources. The website also has information about Dr. Kiehl’s research.
 
http://www.psychopathwhisperer.com/
This website includes author Kent Kiehl’s blog and other resources that are specifically related to the book.
 
http://www.mrn.org/people/kent-a-kiehl/principal-investigators/
The Mind Research Network’s website that includes resources, research articles, and information about Kiehl’s project.
 
Wired Interview with Kent Kiehl, Ph.D. about the Psychopath Whisperer
http://www.wired.com/2014/04/psychopath-brains-kiehl/
What It’s Like to Spend 20 Years Listening to Psychopaths for Science: An interview with the author about his research and the stories behind the book.
 
NPR Story:  Inside A Psychopath's Brain: The Sentencing Debate
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128116806
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Paul Broca
Sigmund Freud
Phineas Gage
Michael Gazzaniga
Robert Hare
Patient HM
John Nash
Peter Salovey
Adderall
ADHD
Affect
Amnesia
Amygdala
Anterior and Posterior Cingulate Cortex
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Atkins v. Virginia (2002)
Behaviorist Theory
Bipolar Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder
Callous and Unemotional (CU) Trait
Child Psychopathy Scale
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Conduct Disorder
Corpus Callosum
Death Penalty
Delusion
Depression
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders (DSM) III, IV-TR, 5
EEG (Electroencephalogram)
Ego
Emotional Intelligence
Empathy
Factor Analysis
Frontal Lobe
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Hallucination (auditory, command, visual)
Hippocampus
IQ
Juvenile Justice System
Limbic System
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Oppositional Defiant Disorder
Orbital Frontal Cortex
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Prefrontal Cortex
Psychopathic Trait
Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)
Recidivism
Schizophrenia
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Self-Report Inventory
Sleep-Wake Disorder
Sociopath
Substance Abuse
Youth Psychopathy Checklist
 
 
 

​Chasing the Scream:  The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs
Author:  Johann Hari
ISBN:  978-1-62040-890-2
 
APA Style Citation
Hari, Johann (2015). Chasing the Scream:  The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs.  New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

​Book Description
Johann Hari’s Chasing the Scream is a compelling if one-sided examination of the history of the war on drugs.  The book is controversial because of an earlier plagiarism incident involving the author, the topic of decriminalizing drugs, the graphic depictions of cartel violence, and the physical, psychological, and social abuse suffered by addicts.  These factors may make the book unsuitable for some high school students.  In 2011, the author was found guilty of plagiarism and misrepresenting information from interviews.  Furthermore, it was found out that the author spitefully altered the Wikipedia sites of his critics. In an attempt to alleviate concerns about credibility, the author includes 73 pages of detailed source notes and an explanation of his research process.  On the books website, the author has shared audio files of fact-checking sessions with each of the figures quoted in the book who are still alive.  The book website allows readers to hear the actual voices of the individuals whose 400 quotes fill the book. Some of the contributors’ photos are included in the quiz about the war on drugs on the main website.
Hari’s book is the result of three years of research that took him on a thirty-thousand-mile search to trace the history of the war on drugs, which began over 100 years ago.  Much of the book is based on historical and current accounts of individuals impacted by the war on drugs.  Hari begins by describing the interrelated factors that connect three key figures at the start of the drug war:  Harry Anslinger the federal bureaucrat, Arnold Rothstein a New York criminal boss, and the singer Billie Holiday.  The story begins with the birth of the American war on drugs, which was a byproduct of the end of prohibition in the 1920’s.  Henry Anslinger became the head of the Bureau of Narcotics (today known as the DEA) and began the relentless pursuit of eliminating drugs.  Anslinger would quickly expand his war on narcotics to include marijuana in addition to cocaine and heroin by playing on racism and fear. Anslinger also silenced any criticism, much of which came from doctors who were successfully treating heroin addicts through maintenance methods.  Anslinger’s department forcibly closed many clinics and thousands of doctors were arrested for providing drugs to their patients.  Most doctors were given heavy fines, but some were given prison terms (five years for each prescription). Hari argues that despite contrary views, Anslinger was able to impose his views on drugs onto the nation.  Arnold Rothstein, whom Hari portrays as the original drug kingpin created the model for the modern drug cartel is another central figure in the history of the drug war. Rothstein controlled the drug trade and was able to accumulate enormous profits, which enabled him to buy and control politicians and law enforcement officers. 
This process continues today and can be summed up with the phrase “plato o plomo” (silver or lead) coined by Mexican cartels suggesting that officials accept bribes or be killed.  The war on drugs according to Hari has led to the control of drugs by dangerous criminals.  Finally, Hari includes the singer Billie Holiday whom he portrays as one of the first victims of Anslinger’s war.  Holiday’s troubled life and struggles with alcohol and heroin made her an early high-profile target of the man who launched the war on drugs.  Based on research from diaries and other records, Hari outlines how Anslinger and his bureau relentlessly pursued Billie Holiday to make her an example for others.
The book chronicles the heart-wrenching stories of specific victims of the war on drugs from Billie Holiday to the present.  The individuals portrayed include innocent victims caught in the crossfire, a transsexual crack dealer and gang leader in New York City, Roaslio Reta a former killer for the Zeta cartel, and the addicts in an Arizona women’s prison who endure hardships under Sherif Joe Arpaio who were forced to work chain gangs in 110 plus heat wearing t-shirts labeling them as DRUG ADDICT.  The prisoners in Sherif Arpaio’s chain gangs were forced to chant the following:
We’re in a state of shame
Couldn’t get our lives strait
We’re headed back to intake
We’re here without our kids
We lost our hope
We gave up dope
 
Sherif Arpaio publicly calls the prison he runs his “concentration camp” and although there is an air-conditioned prison in the area, the inmates are forced to live in tents in the desert.  The tents, which were donated by the military and date to the Korean War era, are freezing in winter and reach temperatures of 140 degrees in summer.  Meanwhile, the sheriff has ordered the air-conditioned prison facility to be used as an animal shelter. In Chasing the Scream, the author tells the story of one Arizona prisoner, meth addict Marcia Powell, who was kept outside in a metal cage by guards with no water, no bed, no bench, and no cover from the 106-degree heat.  She had been in solitary confinement where she swallowed a razor in a suicide attempt. 16 guards had the opportunity to help her, but she was left to die a horrific death in the cage in the desert.  Hari describes how the United States imprisons more individuals for drug-related offenses than all of the nations of Western Europe imprison for all crimes.
 
The book also discusses the stories of many of the individuals who are fighting for a more just and humane solution to the problems of drug abuse.  These individuals include individual family members, addicts, doctors, and government leaders.  Marisela Escobedo, a mother in Mexico who sought justice for her child who was murdered by the cartel walked more than 1000 miles from Juarez to Mexico City to ask for assistance from President Calderon.  Despite her long march through the desert and the exhaustion of her life savings, the President refused to meet with her.  She later learned that a member of the Zeta cartel had murdered her son, which was why the killer was never prosecuted.  Marisela refused to give up on her son and ended up being murdered by the cartel outside the state capitol building.  Leigh Maddox, a state trooper involved with the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) advocates for a new approach to the war on drugs.  LEAP is an organization of current and former police officers, judges, and prison officers who advocate for ending prohibition on drugs in order to bankrupt drug gangs.  Bud Osborn, a poet and homeless addict who worked to bring change and rights for addicts in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver.  Gabor Maté and Bruce Alexander, who proposed alternative theories of addiction, Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland, who supported and promoted decriminalization and the creation of heroin clinics. 
 
Critics have challenged Hari’s criticism of biochemical theories of addiction as being oversimplified.  But the book provides compelling case studies of individuals on the front lines of the drug war and highlights possible alternatives to the current model.  The book ends with examples including Switzerland, Portugal, and the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington and their attempts to address the problems of drugs through decriminalization. 
Although one-sided, Chasing the Scream will challenge you to think about the consequences and costs of the war on drugs. 
 
Other Related Resources
 
Book Website
http://chasingthescream.com/
The website for Chasing the Scream includes audio of the quotes from sources used in the book organized chapter-by-chapter.  Any individual quoted in the book was given the opportunity to review the material written by the author and correct mistakes or add information.  The audio fact checking files allow the reader to have confidence in an author who has been previously found to have plagiarized sources.  The site includes a quiz to test your knowledge of the war on drugs, information about the author, news stories, links to organizations protesting the war on drugs, and videos.
 
Author Johann Hari’s TED Talk
https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong
Author Johann Hari’s 2015 TED talk about his book Chasing the Scream is his description of a compelling theory about the cause of addiction and why the current approach has not been effective.
 
Guardian article by Johann Hari
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/12/johann-hari-chasing-the-scream-war-on-drugs
 
Bruce K. Alexander’s Website
http://www.brucekalexander.com/home-4
The website of Canadian psychologist Bruce K. Alexander whose research on rat park is featured in the book Chasing the Scream.
 
 
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)
http://www.leap.cc/
LEAP is a nonprofit organization consisting of current and former members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities who oppose the war on drugs and policies that do not effectively address drug abuse, juvenile drug use, addiction, and the problems of crime created by criminal control of illegal drug sales. They advocate the following goals: 1) to educate the public, the media and policy makers about the failure of current policies, and 2) to restore the public’s respect for police, which has been greatly diminished by law enforcement’s involvement in enforcing drug prohibition.
 
Heads Up - Drugs and Your Brain
http://headsup.scholastic.com/students/drugs-your-brain
Brochure produced by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) about how drugs impact brain structures.
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Bruce Alexander
Sigmund Freud
Addiction
AIDS / HIV
Alcoholism
Amphetamines
Caffeine
Cannabis
Cocaine
DARE program
Decriminalization
Domestic violence
Drug cartels
Drug education
Ecstasy
Endorphins
Federal Bureau of Narcotics
Harrison Act
Hell’s Angels
Heroin
International Narcotics Control Board
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)
Legalization of drugs
Marijuana
Marijuana legalization
Methadone
Methamphetamine
Morphine
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Opiates
OxyContin
Partnership for a Drug-Free America
Physical dependence
Prohibition of alcohol and drugs
Psychological dependence
Racism
Rat Park experiment
Safe injecting rooms
Schizophrenia
Solitary confinement
Vicodin
Vietnam War
War on drugs
War on poverty
World Health Organization (WHO)
Zetas

​On the Move:  A Life
Author:  Oliver Sacks
ISBN:  978-0-385-25254-3
 
APA Style Citation
Sacks, O. (2015).  On the Move:  A Life.  New York:  Random House.

Book Description
Oliver Sacks was born in England but has travelled and lived in Canada, California, New York, and Australia.  In Sacks’ latest and final book, he reflects on his life, friendships, and patients.  Sacks was born the youngest of four brothers to physician parents.  After completing medical school, he embarked on a trip to Canada and thus began his life “On the Move”.  Sacks is a man of many interests who is well known for books about patients with unique neurological disorders or amazing talents which he wrote about in Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, An Anthropologist on Mars and many more.  On the Move depicts the complex man behind the many stories that have become synonymous with his name. 
 
Sacks had a long time interest in ferns and would visit botanic gardens on a nearly daily basis regardless of his location to sit with his favorite ferns.  He loved music and theatre and often spent his evenings enjoying a play or listening to a concert.  He played piano and had his parent’s piano shipped from England to New York so he could continue to enjoy it.  Sacks became fluent in Hebrew after spending time living in a kibbutz.  When he was younger, he spent his weekends on his motorcycle and would often drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back in a single weekend for the solitude riding brought him.  Sacks swam nearly everyday in his younger years and until jellyfish surrounded him near his home just outside of New York City, he kept up this ritual.  One summer Sacks even rented a room in the basement of an old Inn in upstate New York just so he could enjoy swimming in the nearby ponds and lakes. Sacks would swim for hours and often came up with some of his best writing while out for a swim.  He would leave the water to scribble some notes onto a soaking wet pad to be deciphered later.  Sacks was an avid hiker and would walk nearly anywhere he could until old age slowed him down.  Even after major back surgery he would take the arm of his long-time assistant and amble down to his office to write while standing because sitting was too painful. 
 
Shortly after arriving in the United States, Sacks became a competitive weight lifter and trained on Venice Beach in California.  He was quite successful and broke many records in the squatting category.  Sacks also loved the elements on the periodic table.  One of his friends threw him a birthday party in which all of the guests arrived dressed as elements and Sacks was thrilled at the thoughtfulness of this gesture.  He collected elements, which he kept on his desk and delighted in their touch and the differences between each specimen. 
 
Early on, Sacks thought he might be interested in becoming a marine biologist or a zoologist, but during his time at Oxford he became interested in neurophysiology.  During this time, he read Maynard Keynes’s Essays in Biography, which he credits with sparking his own desire to write clinical biographies.  Later, A.R. Luria’s Mind of a Mnemonist cemented this desire.  It was also at this time that he began attending lectures related to psychology and became interested in visual perception, which would remain an interest throughout his life.
 
Sacks speaks fondly of the many mentors he had throughout his life both professional and personal, from the kindly Dr. Kremer at Middlesex hospital in England to the friends with whom he enjoyed theatre and books.  He surrounded himself with those who he found inspirational and his genuine gratefulness for these friends comes though in his writing.  Author Thom Gunn became a lifelong friend after they met in the 60s in San Francisco.  On the Move is named for one of Thom’s poems of the same name.
 
On the Move
At worst, one is in motion;
And at best,
Reaching no absolute, in
which to rest,
One is always nearer by not
keeping still.
 
Sacks saved many of the letters he exchanged throughout his life and includes many quotes in the book, from his aunt’s encouraging letters about travel and self-discovery to physicians inquires about his case studies.  Sacks also shares his perspective regarding his brother’s decent into schizophrenia and the toll it took on the family as he moved between psychotic states and periods of relative calm. 
 
Sacks shares his concerns and self-consciousness to the response of his books both in the popular media and from those in the medical field.  While Sacks recalls himself as a “failed” surgeon and lab researcher, the passion he has for the patients he encountered over a lifetime of trying to bring their stories to light is clear.  His “failure” may well have been the happiest mistake for those who were able to read and learn from the narratives he provided to help understand the humanity behind the clinical diagnoses.
 
Other Related Resources

PBS obituary for Oliver Sacks
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/oliver-sacks-neurologist-acclaimed-author-dies-82/
 
New York Times, article about Oliver Sacks on the day he passed away
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/science/oliver-sacks-dies-at-82-neurologist-and-author-explored-the-brains-quirks.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
 
New York Times:  Opinions July, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/opinion/my-periodic-table.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
 
New York Times:  Oliver Sacks Learning he had Terminal Cancer, February 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/opinion/oliver-sacks-on-learning-he-has-terminal-cancer.html?gwh=305D116A960AAC56758646057B2890E8&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion
 
Desktop Fridays:  A tour of Oliver Sacks desk
http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/12/02/2010/desktop-diaries-oliver-sacks.html
 
Resources Related to Specific Oliver Sacks Case Studies
 
Clive Wearing
Radio Lab episode about Clive Wearing’s story:
http://www.radiolab.org/story/91578-clive/
 
Life without memory video about Clive Wearing from the Mind series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c62C_yTUyVg
 
Stephen Wiltshire –Human Camera
Stephen’s Wiltshire’s official website which includes biographical information, photos of his artwork, videos, and even a store where you can purchase prints.
http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/index.aspx
 
Video demonstration of Stephen Wiltshire’s talents from the BBC documentary Fragments of Genius:  Understanding Savants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8YXZTlwTAU
 
Video of Stephen Wiltshire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxVFd51NvWg
 
Temple Grandin
Temple Grandin’s official website
http://www.templegrandin.com/
 
Temple Grandin’s TED talk:  The World Needs All Kinds of Minds
https://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds?language=en
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Jerome Bruner
Noam Chomsky
David Hubel
Lev Vygotsky
Torsten Wiesel
Alzheimer’s disease
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Catatonia
Clozapine
Color blindness
Encephalitis
Huntington’s disease
L-dopa
Language acquisition device
Migraines
Myelinated nerve fibers
Natural Selection
Parkinson’s disease
Peripheral nerve fibers
Proprioception
Propagnosia
Psychedelic drugs
Right/Left hemisphere functions
Schizophrenia
Thorazine
Tourette’s syndrome
Visual agnosia
Visual Illusions

look me in the eye:  my life with asperger’s
Author:  John Elder Robison
ISBN:  978-0-307-39618-1

APA Style Citation
Robison, J. E.  (2008).  look me in the eye:  my life with asperger’s.  New York, New York:  Random House.

Book Description:

John Elder Robinson expands on his experience with Asperger’s told in part by his brother (Augusten Burroughs) in the book Running With Scissors.  John Elder struggled for a good part of his life without the knowledge that he had Autism (referred to in the book as Asperger’s but classified today as Autism).  Autism was not well understood when John Elder was young and was often confused with schizophrenia or depression.  It is important that we understand the behaviors and thoughts of those with Autism because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that 1 in 150 people are on the autistic spectrum.  John Elder describes Autism as a way of being rather than a disease for which there is no cure or need for a cure.  Rather, he advocates for a better understanding of the disorder. 

The title of the book comes from the fact that John Elder was often reprimanded for not looking people in the eye.  When he was young, he had a very specific way of playing and could not understand that others might want to play differently.  He never mixed his foods or the colors of the blocks.  People would ask John Elder a question and he would respond with whatever was on his mind rather than addressing the question that was asked.  He had a difficult time making friends because other children did not understand the way he played.  He did not have the kind of empathy others had which made people think he was a bad kid.  Because he heard this often enough that he eventually came to believe that it was true.  John Elder’s father was an alcoholic and his mother was likely schizophrenic, which added more conflict to his already troubled childhood.  He loved but tormented his younger brother to whom he referred to as “Snort” (he gave everyone names of his choosing).  John Elder was brutally honest which also got him into trouble.  Eventually, he used his ability to focus to come up with elaborate pranks, which made him popular for a time with the other children in school, and he enjoyed making them laugh. 

As a boy, John Elder was interested in dinosaurs, tanks, ships, planets, bulldozers, cars and airplanes.  When he was a teenager he was introduced to electronics and this became his passion and primary focus.  He loved to take things apart and build transistors, televisions, and radios and eventually he began building and fixing amplifiers.  Often, those with Autism have a savant like mind for visualization.  John Elder could visualize sounds waves and the devices he wanted to build.  Local musicians found out about his talent and he began fixing their amplifiers and improving their sound.  He was welcomed by the local music scene and began spending much of his time in clubs and concerts.  Eventually he dropped out of high school (despite incredibly high standardized test scores) and moved out of his dysfunctional parents home.  While he was working on amplifiers, he encountered the members of KISS who were interested in creating a smoking guitar.  John Elder made their vision come to life and ultimately began working for the band full-time creating complex pyrotechnics.  The members of the band referred to him as “Ampie” and were thrilled with his work. His job with the band was exciting but John Elder did not enjoying the partying life style that came with life on the road with a rock band.  He had a girlfriend who enjoyed electronics and helped him with his projects with whom he wanted to be with more often.  He left the musical circuit for a life at Milton Bradley’s electronics division as a research engineer, where he found others other engineers he could relate to and felt more at home.  John Elder was never interested in small talk and was so logical that sometimes his “gruff” manner was upsetting to those to whom he had to report.  He eventually learned to ask about people’s families and interests before diving into the conversation he really wanted to have and was pleased to see that people responded positively.  This process was far more methodical for John Elder that it might be for others, but with practice he learned proper social etiquette. He eventually moved on to a corporate job but did not find this satisfying and today he owns an auto body shop and buys, fixes and sells older cars.  He is able to complete repairs that others cannot and has found a strong following.  He generally works on his own (although he employs a staff of 12) and his passion for cars allows him to find this work stimulating.  John Elder has a son he calls “Cubbie” though he is no longer married to Cubbie’s mother.  He loves taking Cubbie to train yards and to see ships and cars.  He also enjoys making up wild stories, which Cubbie loves. 

John Elder explains that although many Autistic individuals are introverted, it is not that they want to be alone but are afraid of the negative feedback they often receive in social situations.  Their focus and intellect in a given domain sometimes are not recognized because of their lack of interpersonal skills.  John Elder’s obsession with cars allows him to succeed in his current business just as his obsession with electronics allowed him to work with KISS.  John Elder finds that his directness actually benefits his current position because he can tell people in a very precise fashion what needs to be fixed on their cars.  An acquaintance gave John Elder a book to read about Autism in which he recognized many of his own behaviors.  Rather then be upset by the diagnosis, John Elder was relieved that there was a name for his “odd” behaviors. He felt comforted that there were other people like him and he was not arrogant or lazy, as he had heard for so many years.  He suddenly realized that many of his difficulties with social interactions and inappropriate facial expressions were because he was autistic not sadistic.  Once he understood the differences between his behavior and those of “normal” individuals, he began to make a concerted effort to look people in the eye and listen to what they were saying.  Many people commented on how much more friendly he seems than before.  He has even taken comfort in a recent article that suggests Asperger’s is an essential part of creative genius. 

John Elder’s unique traits are still there, in bed he likes to pile pillows on top of him, logically computes whether he married the best of the sisters (his current wife is one of three girls), and he asks his wife to scratch his back because this calms him down.  John Elder likes the quote, “When you’ve met one Aspergian, you’ve met one Asbergian.”  He recognizes his unique and different traits and rather than try to pretend he is someone that he is not, he has embraced his uniqueness and learned to find it’s best aspects.

Resources
OASIS Online Asperger’s Syndrome Information
http://www.aspergersyndrome.org

America Asperger’s Association
https://www.autismspeaks.org/resource/american-aspergers-association

John Elder Robison Website
http://www.johnrobison.com

John Elder Robison Blog
http://jerobison.blogspot.com

John Elder Robison on the Today Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwzfgNWmR6E

Autism Center for Excellence
http://www.autism-center.ucsd.edu/autism-information/Pages/what-is-autism.aspx

National Institute of Health:  Autism Fact Sheet
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm

10 tips on how to communicate with individuals with Autism
http://autismum.com/2012/05/07/10-tips-on-how-to-communicate-with-autistic-people/

Communication and Interaction:  National Autistic Society
http://www.autism.org.uk/living-with-autism/communicating-and-interacting/communication-and-interaction.aspx

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Hans Asperger
Autism Spectrum
Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
Schizophrenia
Depression
Savant Syndrome
Interpersonal skills
Daniel Tamment:  Born on a Blue Day
Temple Grandin:  Thinking in Pictures
Brain plasticity

MOOD:  The Key to Understanding Ourselves and Others
Author(s):  Patrick M. Burke, PhD
ISBN: 978-1-61614-833-1

APA Style Citation
Burke, Patrick (2014).  MOOD:  The Key to Understanding Ourselves and Others.  New York:  Prometheus Books.

Book Description

Mood:  The Key to Understanding Ourselves and Others is an excellent source of information related to motivation and emotion as well as mental illness and treatment.  Published in 2014, Mood includes information which is aligned with the recently published DSM-5.  Author Patrick Burke specifically describes not only the changes made to the DSM-5, but also the research behind the changes.  The author provides a wealth of interesting and informative background information to help explain the nuances of the new diagnostic manual.  Burke is an experienced child and adolescent psychiatrist whose clinical expertise suggests that biology, genetics, and relationships influence mood and as a consequence one’s world view.

This book examines the wide range of human emotion, especially with regard to mental illness, and how developmental and biological processes shape mood.  Mood explicitly describes the various brain regions, neurotransmitters, and neural circuits related to mood.  It also includes several helpful diagrams of brain regions and neural circuits. According to Burke, mood plays a central role in how individuals cope with life’s stresses and is a critical factor that determines whether a person will experience vulnerability to mental illness or resilience when exposed to difficult events.

Mood is divided into several chapters including the purposes of mood, human development and mood, the neuroscience of mood, and the impact of events on mood that are each relevant to a variety of units in an introductory psychology course.  There are also six chapters addressing issues of mood in the context of mental illness and treatment that are especially useful with regards to explaining the research that shaped the organization of the DSM-5.  Because moods are always present, the book highlights the difference between occasional mood related problems and mood related mental illnesses that may require treatment.  There are separate chapters on anxiety disorders (When Moods are Worried and Fearful), bipolar and related disorders (When Moods are High or Low), and disruptive behaviors (When Mood is Indifferent).  Each of the chapters related to mood and mental illness includes case studies, detailed explanations of DSM-5 classification, symptoms, and biological and environmental contributors.  The book emphasizes the impact of neurotransmitters, hormones and neural circuits on moods, especially with regards to mental illness and how psychotropic medications are used to treat these conditions.  

The sections on treatment provide detailed overviews of the major current therapies related to disturbances in mood including biomedical therapy, psychodynamic therapy (interpersonal psychotherapy IPT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychosocial approaches, and other methods that are less likely to be discussed in introductory psychology textbooks.  For example, the author discusses well-being therapy which was developed to increase levels of resilience in patients and is related to research on positive psychology.  This treatment emphasizes building skills and resiliency that will inoculate individuals against developing symptoms in response to stressful events.  A detailed and easily readable chapter regarding the major classes of medications used in the treatment of mood related mental illnesses explains how these medications work at the neural level. 

Mood:  The Key to Understanding Ourselves and Others provides excellent up to date information about how researchers understand mood and how it develops over the lifespan.  The text highlights how a combination of genetic, neurological, and environmental factors combine to create moods and shape behavior. The inclusion of numerous case studies illustrating a variety of mental illnesses including antisocial personality disorder, depression, bipolar, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, and obsessive compulsive disorder make this book especially useful for psychology teachers and students of psychology.

Other Related Resources
American Psychiatric Association document highlighting the changes from the DSM-IV-TR to the DSM-5.
http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/changes%20from%20dsm-iv-tr%20to%20dsm-5.pdf

Ted ideas article addressing important topics in the area of mental health including ending stigma, avoiding correlations between criminality and mental illness, investigating the correlation between mental illness and suicide, and the impact of stigmatizing language. 
TED ideas:  How Should We Talk About Mental Health
http://ideas.ted.com/2013/12/18/how-should-we-talk-about-mental-health/

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Antisocial personality disorder
Anxiety disorders (e.g., generalized anxiety disorder, phobias, agoraphobia, panic)
Attachment (e.g., stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, parenting styles, John Bowlby)
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Autonomic nervous system
Bipolar and related disorders (e.g., bipolar I, bipolar II, cyclothymia)
Brain regions (e.g., cortex, prefrontal cortex, insula, amygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, limbic system)
Circadian rhythms
Comorbidity
Conduct disorder/ Oppositional defiant disorder
Cortisol
Depressive disorders (e.g., major depression, persistent depressive disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)
Diathesis stress model
Epigenetics
fMRI
Fight-or-flight response
Gene and environment interaction
Heritability
Neural circuits (e.g., fear, reward, decision making, executive action)
Neurotransmitters (e.g. dopamine, GABA, serotonin, norepinephrine)
Obsessive compulsive and related disorders (e.g., OCD, hoarding)
Plasticity
Psychopharmacology (e.g. antianxiety, antidepressant, antipsychotic, mood stabilizers)
Psychotherapy (e.g. psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, IPT, well-being therapy)
Resilience and vulnerability
Social learning theory
Stress response system
Temperament
Trauma- and stressor-related disorders (e.g., acute stress disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder)

Author(s):  Linea Johnson and Cinda Johnson
ISBN:  978-0312581824

APA Style Citation
Johnson, L and Johnson, C.  (2012).  Perfect Chaos:  A daughter’s journey to survive bipolar, a mother’s struggle to save her.  New York: St. Martin’s press.

 

Book Description

Perfect Chaos provides an up close and personal view of an individual and family struggling with bipolar disorder.  The book is written in a series of journal entries, which chronicle the details of Linea Johnson’s specific bouts with bipolar as they occurred.  Linea describes what she was feeling when she overdosed on pills, or suffered from a manic episode.  Cinda’s (Linea’s mother) entries recount the struggle of a parent whose child is diagnosed as bipolar and the struggle to support them and identify the signs when a manic or depressive episode was beginning.  Cinda also struggles with allowing her college aged daughter to experience the freedom typical for someone that age while wanting to keep close tabs on her because of her disorder.

Linea Johnson grew up with her parents and her older sister Jordan in a suburb of Seattle.  She excelled in arts and music and was extremely competitive and hardworking.  She participated in musical performances and sports in addition to her schoolwork, but by sophomore year in high school she was suffering from anxiety, which everyone attributed to her over involvement.  When Linea discovered that her best friend was cutting herself, she confided in a school counselor which did not go well but eventually led to Linea sharing some of her own feelings with her mother and going to see a psychologist.  At this point, she was diagnosed with depression and was prescribed antidepressant medication.  While Linea experienced many great successes in her high school career, she also describes feeling “numb” and blaming herself for not appreciating all of the good things she had going on in her life.  At the time she could not understand that her illness was impacting her perception.

Linea was accepted to Columbia University in Chicago with a scholarship to study music.  She experienced great anxiety about her future but everyone in the family simply attributed this to her moving across the country.  Linea excelled during the first semester and had abundant energy, but after the holiday break she began to experience extreme moods swings.  Assuming this was another bout related to her depression, she saw a psychologist who diagnosed her with bipolar disorder.  In her sophomore year, Linea experienced extreme highs and lows and began self-medicating with alcohol and drugs to ease her emotional distress.  She experienced hallucinations and at one point believed that a hotel room was the Titanic as it was sinking.  Linea came home from Chicago and eventually admitted that she could not keep herself safe.  As a result, she was admitted to a locked psychiatric unit.  She begged her parents to “just let me go” as she could not bear the pain any longer.  Linea’s mother Cinda worked with transitioning disabled teens from high school to their future lives, and she acknowledges that her experience in the field and connections in Seattle helped Linea get care that others would not be able to receive because of the endless and confusing bureaucracy of the medical system. 

Linea went through the controversial treatment of ECT in an effort to jolt her out of her depression when medication did not seem to be having any impact.  This worked for her even though she today acknowledges it is not for everyone. She eventually made her way back to Chicago but the disorder would continue to cycle and Linea overdosed on pills finding herself once again in the ER.  The disorder does not go away, but Linea manages it better now and both she and Cinda know the signs of an impeding episode   Cinda and Linea talk to groups to encourage others to learn about the signs to bipolar disorder.   They are willing to share the painful memories of their own story in order to help others. 

Other Related Resources

Author’s webpage:
http://lineacinda.com

NPR Interview with the Authors:
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/14/158762426/surviving-thriving-in-spite-of-bipolar-disorder

Linea’s Blog: Chronicling her struggles with Bipolar disorder
http://lineajohnson.blogspot.com/p/perfect-chaos.html

National Institute of Mental Health: Information on Bipolar disorder
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/bipolar-disorder/index.shtml

Mayo Clinic Information on Bipolar Disorder:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bipolar-disorder/basics/definition/con-20027544

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Bipolar disorder
Manic episode
Depression
Suicide
Addiction
Cutting
Feeding and eating disorders
Antidepressants
ECT therapy

 

Author:  Lourie W. Reichenberg
ISBN:   978-1-118-84608-7

APA Style Citation
Reichenberg, L. (2014). DSM-5 Essentials: The Savvy Clinician's Guide to the Changes in Criteria. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.

 

Book Description

The publication of the DSM-5 manual will change how mental illness and treatment are taught in psychology courses.  This useful manual created a licensed professional counselor can be an invaluable resource for redesigning curriculum.  Considering that the DSM-5 sells for over $100 and contains almost nine hundred pages, this handbook can provide instructors and students with a condensed summary at a fraction of the cost.  This will enable instructors to quickly familiarize themselves and become up to date on the new classification systems.  It also condenses the vast amount of material in the DSM-5 for ease of use.  For example, obsessive compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder are no longer classified as anxiety disorders.  Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) now is part of a category called obsessive-compulsive and related disorders which also includes body dysmorphic disorder, hoarding disorder, trichotillomania, and excoriation.  Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is now part of the category called trauma- and stressor-related disorders which also includes acute stress disorder, and adjustment disorders.  These changes and the rationale behind many of them are described simply and succinctly.

The book also explains the new dimensional approach to diagnosis, which replaces the axis system used in prior versions of the DSM, which makes the manual more aligned with how the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases organizes diagnoses.    The new manual acknowledges that years of research indicated that many of the disorders in the DSM-IV were not in fact unique conditions, but simply a reflection of severity along a continuum.  The spectrum approach for many disorders has been specifically added to the DSM-5 for many conditions including substance abuser, autism, and schizophrenia. 

Reichenberg’s book includes the main disorders in each of the twenty classifications present in the DSM-5.  For each disorder there is a short description of diagnostic criteria, symptoms, specifiers, and specific information regarding some of the changes to each disorder that occurred with the update to the manual.  The author explains what the changes mean for diagnosis and how these changes impact how clinicians choose the most appropriate evidence based treatment for each condition.  DSM-5 Essentials lists the categories and disorders in the same order as they appear in the DSM-5.  The author explains that the DSM-5 presents disorders according to how they would likely appear throughout the lifespan.  Thus, the first category listed is neurodevelopmental disorders, which are diagnosed early in life (e.g. intellectual disability, autism) and neurocognitive disorders (e.g. Alzheimer’s delirium), which appear towards the end. 

The final chapter of the book addresses the emerging models, new assessments designed to help clarify diagnoses, methods to address cultural issues in clinical interviews, a potential alternative model of describing personality disorders, and several conditions which are recommended for further study.  The eight conditions which need further study before being added to the manual are attenuated psychosis syndrome, depressive episodes with short-duration hypomania, persistent complex bereavement disorder, caffeine use disorder, internet gaming disorder, neurobehavioral disorder due to prenatal alcohol exposure (ND-PAE), nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), and suicidal behavior disorder.  Each of these potential diagnoses is described briefly and could make an interesting classroom discussion. 

Other Related Resources
American Psychiatric Association: highlights changes in the DSM-5.
http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/changes%20from%20dsm-iv-tr%20to%20dsm-5.pdf

One-page descriptions summarizing the criteria for common diagnoses under DSM-5 called fact sheets.
http://www.psychiatry.org/dsm5

Psychological Figures and Concepts
DSM-5
American Psychiatric Association
Neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., attention deficient hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability)
Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders (e.g., schizotypal personality disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder)
Bipolar and related disorders (e.g., bipolar I, bipolar II, cyclothymic disorder)
Depressive disorders (e.g., disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder or dysthymia, premenstrual disorder)
Anxiety disorders (e.g., separation anxiety disorder, selective mutism, specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia)
Obsessive-compulsive related disorders (e.g., obsessive-compulsive disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, hoarding disorder, trichotillomania, excoriation)
Trauma- and stressor-related disorders (e.g., reactive attachment disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder, adjustment disorders)
Dissociative disorders (e.g., dissociative identity disorder, dissociative amnesia)
Somatic symptom and related disorders (e.g., somatic symptom disorder, illness anxiety disorder, functional neurological symptom disorder/conversion disorder, factitious disorder)
Feeding and eating disorders (e.g., pica and rumination disorder, avoidant/restrictive intake disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia disorder, binge-eating disorder)
Sleep-wake disorders (e.g., insomnia disorder, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, sleep terrors)
Disruptive, impulse control, and conduct disorders (e.g., oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder)
Substance-related and addictive disorders (e.g., substance use disorders, substance withdrawal, substance intoxication)
Neurocognitive disorders (e.g., delirium, major neurocognitive disorder, mild neurocognitive disorder)
Personality disorders 

Minds on Trial:  Great Cases in Law and Psychology
Author(s):  Charles Patrick Ewing & Joseph T. McCann
ISBN:  978-0195181760

APA Citation
Ewing, C.P. & McCann, J.T. (2006).  Minds on Trial:  Great Cases in Law and Psychology.  New York: Oxford University Press.

Book Description
Forensic psychologists have long combined the fields of Law and Psychology and as such this book features 20 famous cases that merge the two fields.  The book examines the testimony put forth by professionals in the field of psychology, which is then deemed valid (or not) within the legal system.  These cases often create precedents for future cases and have determined the legal parameters for psychological illnesses, false memories, public endangerment, and many others issues.  While the book examines 20 famous cases, this review will concentrate on two in order to provide insight into the general information presented in the book. According the Ewing and McCann, “the relationship between psychology and the law is about the ways in which the workings of the human mind:  like memory, thinking, perception, personal decision making, free will, and other complex psychological phenomena, impact important legal issues.”

Patricia Hearst
On February 4th, 1974 Patty Hearst was kidnapped from her Berkeley, California home.  Patty was the daughter of William Randolph Hearst, one of the wealthiest men in America who owned a chain of media outlets.  The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) claimed responsibility and asked Hearst’s parents to donate $70 of food to every poor person in California, and to publish all accounts of this in the media.  The Hearst family did as asked.

On April 3rd, 1974 Patty issued a statement indicating that she wanted to stay with the group of her own volition and that she wanted to become a freedom fighter and that she was changing her name to “Tania”.  Patty Hearst went on to assist in bank robberies and the shooting and robbery of a sporting goods store as well as serving as a getaway driver in another bank robbery.

On September 18th, 1975 Patty Hearst and other SLA members were arrested.  In her defense Hearst claimed that she went along with her captors for fear for her own life.  The prosecutors, using tapes of the robberies, claimed that she was a willing participant in the crimes.  Court appointed psychologists found Hearst to be sane but “emotionally impaired to a significant degree” and that she suffered from the equivalent of PTSD.  The also stated that she was subjected to coercive manipulation by her captors.  The debate between the prosecution and defense was whether she committed these acts under duress or of her own will.  The prosecution claimed that Hearst became impressed with the goals of her captors and their willingness to die for their beliefs and eventually came to agree and participate in their actions.  They also claimed that the psychologists aiding the defense team were serving their own interests in order to gain from the Hearst’s wealth and influence.

The jury convicted Patty Hearst and sentenced her to seven years in prison; President Jimmy Carter famously commuted her sentence after 22 months.  Most individuals who are familiar with the case today agree that if not for the dire circumstances in which Hearst found herself, she would not have committed the crimes.  President Bill Clinton issued her a full pardon in 2001.

Prosenjit Poddar
This case addresses the issue of public safety and when a psychiatrist or psychologist must break confidentiality to insure the public safety of others.  Generally, the guideline requires that if someone poses a potential risk of harm to themselves or others the psychologist should inform others who can potentially eliminate the risk.

Prosenjit Poddar was born in India and came to the United States to study naval architecture at the University of California Berkeley.  He eventually enrolled in folk dancing lessons where he met and fell in love with Tatiana Tarasoff.  Tatiana did not reciprocate his feelings, which threw Poddar into a deep depression.  Poddar’s friends encouraged him to see a therapist and he admitted in therapy that he planned to kill Tarasoff when she returned from her studies in Brazil.  His therapist contacted the clinic’s assistant director and both agreed that Poddar should be involuntarily admitted into the hospital’s psychiatric unit.  They called the campus police to take Poddar into custody and informed them that he was a paranoid schizophrenic who could appear rational, but was a danger to others.  The police found him to be quite rational and did not detain him.  Later, the director of the clinic Dr. Harvey Powelson asked police to return the letter asking to detain Poddar and asked the therapist to destroy his therapy notes containing any contacts with Poddar. 

On October 27th, 1969 Poddar went to Tarasoff’s apartment and asked to talk with her, she refused, and he shot her with a pellet gun.  She began to run, but he caught her and then stabbed multiple times, killing her.  Tarasoff pled not guilty by reason of insanity and the defense found four witnesses who all testified that he was a paranoid schizophrenic and a neurologist who claimed that Poddar had brain abnormalities.  The prosecution believed that Poddar had a schizoid personality, but that he was in control of his actions. 

The jury found Poddar to be sane and he was convicted of second-degree murder.  The judge in the case however, failed to indicate to the jury the specifics of malice which had to be a part of the intent of Poddars’s actions.  Because these details were not clearly defined, Poddar’s conviction was overturned.  Rather than have a new trial, he was released on the condition that he return to India immediately. 

Tarasoff’s parents filed a wrongful death case indicating that their daughter should have been directly warned of the danger that she was facing.  The therapists have “a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect a potential victim of another’s conduct”.  The court decided that the therapist must provide for the safety of the patient, but also the third person who they know to be threatened by the patient.  Some argued that this would actually decrease public safety because if clients knew that therapists had to disclose this information, they may be less likely to seek treatment.  This decision is often referred to as the “duty to warn” or “duty to protect”.  This decision weighs the interests of patient confidentiality against the public interest of safety.

The cases featured in Minds on Trial address many interesting intersections between the fields of Law and Psychology, the cases themselves are interesting and bring to light many complications with laws that are intended to be straight forward and clear, that become muddled and murky when applied to actual cases.  This would be an interesting read for those interested in careers in the field of Law or Forensic Psychology as future cases are sure to use past cases as a precedent for decisions.

Other Related Resources
C-Span Interview with Charles Ewing coauthor of Minds on Trial:  Great Cases in Law and Psychology
http://www.c-span.org/video/?194244-2/book-discussion-minds-trial

The homepage of Professor Gary Wells who is a psychology professor at Iowa State University and an expert on eyewitness memory issues which has numerous links to articles and cases in forensic psychology.
http://public.psych.iastate.edu/glwells/

FBI website article about the Patty Hearst case
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/patty-hearst-kidnapping

Crime Library article regarding the Prosenjit Poddar case and the duty to warn.  Predicting Extreme Fatal Violence
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/risk_assessment/7.html

Article summarizing the differences in duty to warn laws across the 50 states.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/mental-health-professionals-duty-to-warn.aspx

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Criminal profiling
Paranoid schizophrenia
Hindsight bias
Schizoid personality
Posttraumatic stress disorder
Insanity
Narcissism
McNaugten rule
Antisocial personality disorder
Confirmation Bias
Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

Confessions of a Sociopath:  A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight
Author:  M.E. Thomas
ISBN: 9780307956651

APA Style Citation
Thomas, M.E. (2013).  Confessions of a Sociopath:  A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight.  New York, Random House Company.

Book Description   
M.E. Thomas, (a pseudonym) describes the characteristics of sociopathy in general and cites many examples from her own personal experiences. Author M.E. Thomas refers to herself as a sociopath rather than a psychopath, although clinicians might disagree with her assessment.  While one might question the legitimacy of a book written by someone who is known to lie and manipulate, Thomas seems sincere in her desire to describe the typical characteristics of sociopaths and correct some of the stereotypes and falsehoods about the disorder.  She examines sociopaths in great detail, including their lack of ability to empathize or to experience fear.  The author also outlines how to best live with this disorder or with someone who has the disorder.  

While the purpose of Confessions of a Sociopath is to dispel misconceptions about the disorder, other characteristics often associated with sociopathy are reinforced.  She describes herself as being very intelligent.  She was a practicing lawyer and law professor, but she also describes how she gamed the system in law school by taking courses like billiards to buffer her GPA while others were slogging through tax and constitutional law courses. 

Thomas describes her interactions with others as highly calculated.  She lacks empathy and becomes angry and confused when other people are highly emotional because she cannot relate to how they are feeling and as such has no idea how to properly react. In relationships, she explains that she can be ruthless and calculating.  She describes how she uses the fact that many people are very forthcoming, and how without much prompting co-workers share details about their insecurities.  She occasionally has used this information against individuals later, but often just knowing that she knows about these secrets will keep others under her control. 

Thomas describes her relationships as a game; she enjoys the hunt but does not necessarily remain interested in the relationship once the hunt is over.  She claims that the key for identifying other sociopaths is their sexual ambiguity, they seem to be indifferent to being with males or females, and she believes this trait is often overlooked in diagnoses.  Thomas also describes her lack of remorse, one of the most frequently mentioned characteristics of antisocial personality disorder.  She describes abandoning a friend who was struggling with her father’s terminal cancer because it was no longer ‘fun’ to hang out with her (they have since reconnected). Thomas left the relationship because it was too much work.  Even though she knew this was not the right course of action ethically, she could not make herself feel badly for her friend’s loss.  Thomas also describes herself as charismatic and engaging.  The students in her law classes gave her rave reviews even if she occasionally did not know how to respond to their emotional requests.

Some of the characteristics of sociopathy that are not often discussed in typical descriptions are high self-confidence, lack of fear, and a low prevalence of depression. Thomas explains that these characteristics in particular may also have benefits, which are often overlooked by others who see few redeeming qualities in sociopaths.  Thomas describes her lack of self-consciousness by explaining that she is attractive but not beautiful.  She believes that because she does not care what others think about her that she can be more carefree which she believes causes others to be drawn to her.  Her self-confidence in the book sometimes borders on arrogance and she often thinks that those around her are less bright and therefore easy prey for her manipulations.   Her lack of fear may at times put her in risky situations.  For example, she mentions that she chooses to live in bad neighborhoods that others would not venture into because the rent is incredibly cheap.  She states that she has no fear of her house being robbed (which it has been on multiple occasions) or of physical harm as a result of living in a dangerous neighborhood.  Her lack of fear also leads to high levels of sensation seeking; she describes driving dangerously and causing multiple car accidents. Her lack of care with regards to material goods prevents her from worrying too much about whether her possessions are stolen or if her car is ruined as a result of her reckless behavior.  This may be a benefit to those who are sociopaths.  The lack of care about personal goods and relationships may also prevent the onset of depression which others would potentially experience in similar circumstances.

One of the largest myths surrounding sociopathy is that all sociopaths are dangerous, and that many are killers.  Most studies of sociopathy have been done on prisoners, and as a result most noncriminal sociopaths go undiagnosed or are self-diagnosed but do not disclose this fact to others.  For this reason, Thomas runs a blog for sociopaths to have discussions with other sociopaths who share their life experiences.  In the book, she uses multiple examples from the blog to expand or reinforce her own experiences.  Thomas dispels the idea that all sociopaths are violent.  She explains that she rarely feels violent towards others, but when it does occur, she admits that she is laser focused on ruining the individual that has drawn her ire.  Thomas also explains that most sociopaths are not violent because there is often no benefit for them to be violent.  While sociopaths do not particularly care about rules, laws, and regulations they often follow them because it provides the greatest benefit.  If, for example one were to constantly attack coworkers either physically or with the threat of violence, they would likely be fired.  Because sociopaths want to “win” at all costs, they will often play by the rules because it is an advantageous strategy.

Thomas explains that she can have friendships and maintain family relationships that would by most measures be considered “normal” and that she has shared her diagnosis with her family members and close friends.  She explains that even though she does not experience feelings the same way as others, she still can experience loneliness and love.  In fact she has a special love of children and hopes someday to have her own but worries about passing on the trait of sociopathy.  She is a practicing Mormon and has found few contradictions between her faith and the way she lives her life. She credits the church with providing her with a structure for what is right and wrong that she otherwise might have trouble understanding on her own.  Like other disorders, sociopathy is considered to be a combination of genetics and life experiences, Thomas describes a number of traumatic events she experienced as a child, but generally describes feeling loved by her family and still has strong ties to them today.

Thomas dismisses the thought that sociopaths as “lost causes” who cannot make any beneficial contributions to society.  She acknowledges that treating sociopaths can be difficult, but poses that their non-emotional demeanor can be beneficial in many situations.  She explains that when other lawyers would become flustered or empathize with a witness during a trial; she was able to focus on the facts.  In emergency situations, when others panic, she is able to remain totally calm because she does not share the same fear that those with empathy exhibit.  Confessions of a Sociopath may help the general public learn more about a disorder with which many have little experience and little has been written.  Even though Thomas wrote under a pseudonym, since the publication of the book, her identity has been revealed and she has been fired from her job as a law professor based essentially on her diagnosis.

Other Related Resources
Psychology Today:  Excerpt from the book
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201305/confessions-sociopath

Huffington Post:  A video interview with M.E. Thomas titled On Her Sociopath Diagnosis: 'Seems To Explain A Lot'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/me-thomas-sociopath-diagnosis_n_3517982.html

Sociopath World:  Link to the blog run by M.E. Thomas
http://www.sociopathworld.com/p/portrait-of-sociopath.html

Psychology Today:  Differences Clinically between a sociopath and psychopath
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wicked-deeds/201401/how-tell-sociopath-psychopath

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Dopamine
Psychopath
Sociopath

Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case
Author:  Debbie Nathan
ISBN:  978-1-4391-6827-1

APA Style Citation 
Nathan, D. (2011).  Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case.  New York, Simon and Schuster.

Book Description
In 1953 at the APA convention, the story of Eve Black was revealed in what would eventually become the film, The Three Faces of Eve.  The film drew public attention to multiple personality disorder.  At the same time, WWII veterans who recently arrived home after witnessing unspeakable horrors sometimes dissociated in an attempt to forget the carnage they had observed.  These events would shape the lives of the women who would later play a role in the most noted story about dissociation.  In Sybil Exposed, author Debbie Nathan tells the story of three women who worked together to create, treat, and write the infamous book about the woman known as Sybil that changed the course of psychology and became “THE” case study upon which thousands of others were based.  Sybil sold almost seven million copies and brought multiple personality disorder (MPD) to the common vocabulary of Americans. Roughly 200 cases of MPD had been diagnosed during the two centuries prior to the publication of Sybil, yet in the four years after the release of the book an additional 25,000 cases were identified, and as many as seven million have been documented through the present.  Nathan interviewed those who knew the three women and poured over papers and tapes of therapy sessions to uncover the truth behind the myth.

Shirley Mason (Sybil) was raised in rural Minnesota in a strict Seventh Day Adventist household.  Shirley loved art and after giving up her dreams of becoming a doctor, she studied to become an art teacher.  In college she became interested in Freud and read about his famous work with the patient Anna O. and other hysterical women.  It was not until she met Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, however that there was any indication that she suffered from multiple personality disorder, even according to those who knew her quite well.  After beginning treatment, Dr. Wilbur provided Shirley with literature regarding dissociation and multiple personality disorder prior to the official diagnosis being issued. 

Dr. Wilbur attended the University of Michigan and it was there she found her calling.  She connected well with girls who suffered from “hysteria” (somatic disorders); she empathized with them and became very motherly, which alone helped some of them recover.  It was at the University of Michigan that she was also introduced to using barbiturates and specifically Pentothal popularly known as “truth serum” to treat patients.  A professor at the University of Michigan medical school was treating women with Multiple Personality Disorder, whom he introduced to Dr. Wilbur.  She was intrigued and began reading about the disorder.

Flora Schreiber who would eventually write the book Sybil was a journalist who wanted to create a name for herself as a serious journalist.  She had previously written articles about schizophrenic women and other stories about mental illness for popular magazines, which were part fiction and part fact.   Dr. Wilber introduced Flora to Shirley and thus the three set about to write a book about this strange disorder. 

When Dr. Wilbur and Shirley Mason first met, there was no doubt that Shirley could benefit from psychological treatment.  She was painfully shy, often sick, suffered from anxiety and insomnia, and occasionally talked in a strange fashion.  Perhaps the most inhibiting symptom was Shirley’s blackouts, in which she would become comatose and suddenly go limp, later forgetting what happened when she blacked out.  In Sybil Exposed, Nathan proposes that many of Shirley’s symptoms may have actually been the result of pernicious anemia (inability to breakdown B12 in the body) rather than multiple personality disorder, which Dr. Wilbur could easily have found if she had examined Shirley’s childhood health records.

The traumas described in the book Sybil did not come out right away; it was only after many sessions with Pethonal in which Dr. Wilbur made suggestions regarding possible childhood abuse (similar to the cases she had seen and read about while at the University of Michigan) that this came up in therapy. Dr. Wilbur also prescribed numerous medications for Shirley including sleeping pills, Seconal for anxiety, and Demerol (an opiate) for menstrual pains. Connie also used the same mothering technique that had benefitted her patients in the early years of her practice; she would often come to Shirley’s apartment and climb into bed with her after administering the Penthonal to discuss early traumas.  When Shirley expressed an interest in going to medical school, Connie volunteered to pay for tuition as well as room and board.  After the publication of Sybil, Shirley essentially lived at Connie’s despite having a home of her own a few blocks away.  While the stringent ethical guidelines for relationships between psychologists and their patients did not exist at the time, this was without question overstepping boundaries that should reasonably exist between patient and therapist. 

Shirley did attend her therapy sessions dressed differently and speaking differently on some occasions.  Dr. Wilbur reported meeting 16 very different personalities during therapy, but many of the claims in the book cannot be substantiated.  During a Penthonal session, Shirley described travelling to Philadelphia and waking to find herself in childlike pajamas, which she had purchased in her fugue state.  Later, she described her mother’s abuse including being locked in a wheat bin and a childhood friend who accidentally killed himself when playing with a gun.  None of these claims could be substantiated by Flora Schreiber as she completed her research for the book Sybil.  In fact, Shirley’s home never had a wheat bin; her friend did not die as a child, but rather when Sybil was 17, and the store where she claimed to have purchased the childlike pajamas in Philadelphia never sold pajamas of any sort.  Despite knowing this, Flora published the book and Shirley and Dr. Wilbur stood by their statements when questioned about the inconsistencies.  No one from Shirley’s hometown, a small tightly knit community where most certainly everyone knew one another’s business ever reported any abuse.  In addition, Shirley’s beloved grandmother who lived at the house and a housekeeper claimed never to have known about any abuse.  While some claimed Shirley’s mother was a bit eccentric, there was no evidence that she was a paranoid schizophrenic as Dr. Wilbur had suggested.

Each woman had different reasons for wanting the book Sybil to be published.  Shirley was painfully poor; she was unable to work for a good deal of her adult life and after meeting Dr. Wilbur was almost certainly suffering from drug addiction as well as her other ailments.  She also owed Dr. Wilbur over $300,000 in bills for psychoanalysis.  Dr. Wilbur wanted to become a world famous psychologist and seemed to be willing to do nearly anything (including lying) to insure that this happened.  Flora Schreiber wanted to become a respected journalist and had already accepted and spent the advance she had been paid to write the book before discovering the inconsistencies in the “story”.  Before writing the book, Flora received Dr. Wilbur’s reassurance that this story would, “have a happy ending” because people would not buy a book with out a happy ending.  Dr. Wilbur promised Flora that Shirley would be cured by 1965 and as if on cue, on September 2, 1965 Shirley was declared, “cured” after eleven years of treatment even though by many accounts her condition had not significantly changed.  The three women created Sybil, Inc. and agreed to split the earnings equally.  The book led to a television series and eventually dolls and board games were added to the Sybil promotions.

Flora and Dr. Wilbur both craved the spotlight and often tried to undermine one another as they engaged in the media blitz following the publication of Sybil.  Shirley, on the other hand, essentially became a recluse.  Although a pseudonym had been used for the book (purportedly to protect Shirley, but perhaps also to be sure that no one could track down the legitimacy of the claims made in the book) Shirley cut ties with people from her hometown and college friends with whom she had kept up a written correspondence for years. Because the details in the book were changed only slightly and those who had known Shirley or did a bit of investigating deduced that Shirley was Sybil. Shirley also stopped communicating with her stepmother to whom she had been very close.

Shirley had written Dr. Wilbur a note in 1958 proclaiming that she was not a multiple, but Dr. Wilbur interpreted this as an expression of fear about moving forward with therapy and uncovering more horrific experiences.  A week later, Shirley recanted the confession.  Flora Schreiber knowingly falsified information to make the story more engaging for readers.  When she found Shirley’s 16 personalities to be lacking in depth, she asked Dr. Wilbur for details about the physical characteristics and personalities of multiples that had not come up in therapy.  For example, the alternate personality Peggy was described as “calm”, but Flora thought this would bore readers and so she decided to make her and the other alternates ‘more interesting’. Even Shirley’s diary appears to have been forged, she claimed it was written primarily in 1941 in ballpoint pen; ballpoint pens were not created until 1944.

Nathan explains that the impetus for writing Sybil Exposed was to tell the real story of Shirley Mason and to try to prevent misleading facts from playing a role in the future diagnosis of patients.  While debunking the story of Sybil, it does not prove that dissociative disorders do not exist.  It does call into question the hundreds of thousands of diagnoses that were made in the years after Sybil was published. Nathan is highly critical of the validity of repressed memories, especially those revealed in a drug induced state.

In 1983 the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation (ISSMP&D) held its first conference and Dr. Wilbur was one of the main speakers. Today, many psychologists question the validity of multiple personality disorder, which was first included in the DSM in 1980.  In the DSM-IV published in 1994, the name was changed to dissociative Identity disorder (DID) in order to make it sound less alluring to the public, because it might be over diagnosed in individuals who are highly suggestible.  In the latest rendition, DSM-5, the diagnosis is still included, however, debate continues regarding the validity of DID and other dissociative conditions. 

All three women involved in the creation of the Sybil story are now dead. In 1988, investigators publically determined Sybil’s’ identity and claims in the book were questioned however, there was no longer anyone alive to deny the truth.  The reprint of Sybil in 2009 included a three-page caution to readers about the truthfulness of the story, but the book is still assigned in many classes and has new readers each year. While Sybil Exposed cannot change the label for the many individuals who may have been misdiagnosed because of Sybil, at least truth has finally been “exposed”. 

Other Related Resources
Book Website
The website for Debbie Nathan’s book Sybil Exposed which includes photos of the women involved in the story, video clips, and a timeline of the events.
http://pages.simonandschuster.com/sybilexposed/

NPR Interview with author Debbie Nathan
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/20/141514464/real-sybil-admits-multiple-personalities-were-fake

A college friend remembers Shirley Mason
The audio-slide show in this video was created by the Author of the book Sybil Exposed, Debbie Nathan and includes audio of her interview with Jean Lane who knew Shirley Mason (Sybil) during college. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4S50E4uqTE

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Jean-Martin Charcot
Walter Freeman
Sigmund Freud
Kitty Genovese
Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder
“Mersmerization”
Psychoanalytic Treatment
Hypnosis
Psychiatry
“Hysteria”
Neuroticism
Psychoticism
Id/Ego/Superego
Dissociation
Oedipus Complex
Free Association
Schizophrenia
Insulin Shock Therapy
Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy
Barbiturates
Lobotomies
Repressed memories
Transference/Countertransference
Panic Attacks
Projection
Resistance
Age Regression Therapy

Submitted by:
Todd Keenan
Gahanna-Lincoln High School
[email protected]

Anatomy of an Epidemic
Author(s):  Robert Whitaker
ISBN: 13-0307452425

APA Style Citation
Whitaker, R. (2010). Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. New York: Random House, Inc..

 

Book Description

Do you want an insightful yet extremely controversial book regarding the treatment of mental illness?  This is it.

Anatomy of an Epidemic is a fantastic and thorough investigative report on the effects of medicine on mental illness. The argument of the author is that medicine has had an adverse effect on those taking it. The question the author poses is, "If we have made so many great advancements in medicines for mental illness, then why have we seen such a dramatic increase in the number of the mentally ill individuals during the last 25 years?"

He answers the question by citing a tremendous amount of research and the results of numerous clinical trials - some of which were never released in the mainstream media.

A few interesting insights from Whitaker’s book:

• Robert Post, M.D. a professor of psychiatry at George Washington University, who has published over 800 articles, recently said in 2008 at an APA Convention, "Right now after 50 years after the advent of antidepressant drugs, we still don't really know how to treat bipolar depression."
• Thorazine, the first major antipsychotic, was original derived as a major tranquilizer for use during surgeries turned became the number one treatment method for schizophrenia.
• In 1985, sales of antidepressants and antipsychotics in the United States amounted to $503 million.
• In 2008, sales of antidepressants and antipsychotics in the United States amounted to $24.2 billion.
• In 1987, there were 16,200 children under 18 who received supplemental security income payments for mental illness.
• In 2007, there were 561,659 children under 18 who received supplemental security income payments   for mental illness.
• Joseph Biederman, Chief of Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital received $1.6 million from pharmaceutical companies from 2000-2007 for speaking engagements to market their drugs to physicians.
• Karen Wagner, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Texas, collected $160,000 from a pharmaceutical company when she promoted their antidepressant drug (Paxil) in an article in which she also falsely reported the results of a pediatric trial of the drug.

 
Other Related Resources
The following eleven-minute video shows Mr. Whitaker summarizing finding from his work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VBXWdhabuQ

The following link leads to a critique of Anatomy of an Epidemic by schizophrenic expert E. Fuller Torrey, MD published online by the Treatment Advocacy Center.
http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&id=2085

The following link is a short two-page summary of the findings presented in Anatomy of an Epidemic.
http://www.ncmhr.org/downloads/Anatomy-Of-An-Epidemic-Summary-Of-Findings-Whitaker.pdf

David Antonuccio’s research is presented in an article titled Antidepressants: A Triumph of Marketing Over Science published in Prevention & Treatment, Volume 5, Article 25, posted July 15, 2002 
Copyright 2002 by the American Psychological Association
http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/2002-07-15-Antonuccio-therapy-vs-med.htm

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Antidepressants
Antipsychotics
Psychological disorders and treatments
Bipolar disorder
Biomedical treatments
Schizophrenia

The Reason I Jump
Author(s):  Naoki Higashida with Introduction by David Mitchell
ISBN:  978-0812994865

APA Style Citation
Higashida, N., & Yoshida, K. A. (2013).  The reason I jump the inner voice of a thirteen-year-old boy with autism.  New York:  Random House.

Book Description 
The Reason I Jump is written by Naoki Higashida a thirteen- year-old boy living with autism.  The book is a series of questions to which Naoki responds with the intent of helping people better understand what happens in the mind of an autistic child.  While some of the information may be particular to Naoki (given that Autism is a spectrum disorder, the recommendations may not apply to all Autistic individuals),  many of his comments can help readers’ better understand all people with autism.  Naoki describes his daily struggles and coping mechanisms for living with autism.  Naoki explains that he often does not have control over his voluntary movements or what comes out of his mouth.  He knows what he wants to do or what he wants to say but very often something different happens over which he has no control.  He is extremely disappointed when others are upset with him because he does not want to let anyone down but often cannot help the way he acts.  Naoki says he does not make eye contact when others are talking not because he is not listening, rather because he is trying to listen to what the person is saying and focusing all of his concentration on their words.  If Naoki looks at people’s faces, he will get distracted but many people think this is impolite.  He does not like holding hands because he often sees something that interests him and wants “to dash off”.  Naoki describes his experiences and memories as primarily visual and not occurring in a sequential order like most others.  It may take him longer to retrieve certain memories or they may be related to seemingly unrelated memories because of how they are stored.  Often those with Autism respond aggressively when a memory triggers another memory of a time they had a bad experience.  Naoki takes longer than most to respond to a request because he must think about what he is going to do, visualize how he is going to do it and encourage himself to get going.  He states that he does not want to live without Autism because this is the world he knows and how he has learned to live.  To address the title of the book, Naoki describes that he jumps when he is very excited and he jumps to try to touch the sky, he says he loves this feeling and wants it to continue but that others often are “put off” by this behavior.  Naoki describes that his sense of balance and where his body is in space is sometimes disorienting, as a result, he often needs others to help him move his body. He explains that it is difficult to dress because some clothing is uncomfortable and he hates to be too hot or too cold so he often dresses in layers but then forgets that he can take something off when he gets too hot.  Naoki describes that time often seems to go very fast or very slow, and that he does not have any sense of time.  He explains that he flaps his fingers in front of his face because he wants to distort the light coming in and too much light makes him uncomfortable ‘like needles”, he can do this for hours but finds it enjoyable because it is like making art with the light.  Even though Naoki is thirteen, he still prefers children’s shows because he enjoys repetition and familiar faces.  If your are interested in learning more about Autism and would like to hear directly from one who can describe their on experiences you are sure to find Naoki enchanting.

Other Related Resources
5 Questions with David Mitchell the translator for The Reason I Jump
http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/the-reason-i-jump-5-questions-david-mitchell

Autism Society
http://www.autism-society.org/living-with-autism/how-we-can-help/resources.html

Autism Now
http://autismnow.org

Autism Speaks
http://www.autismspeaks.org

Ten things that every child with Autism wish you knew
http://www.ellennotbohm.com/article-archive/ten-things-every-child-with-autism-wishes-you-knew/

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Autism
Emotional intelligence