Cultures of healing

While the aims of mental health care are legitimate, many of its claims to scientific truth are not, asserts Robert T. Fancher, Ph.D., in his provocative new book. A practicing psychotherapist, Fancher argues that the mental health professions are composed of competing "cultures," each built around ideology and subjective belief. The authority we ascribe to them is misplaced precisely because it rests on false claims to scientific validity. Fancher contends that the teachings of the mental health professions are not facts about nature, but rather social and moral recommendations. Thus, we need to evaluate them in the style of social and cultural critics, keeping in mind how substantially "cultures of healing" differ from our ordinary concept of mental health care. . Cultures of Healing provides a general history of mental health care in America, then evaluates four major schools of therapy - psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive therapy, and biological psychiatry - discussing the historical significance, general principles and methods of treatment, values, and scientific status of each. Concluding with an assessment of how best to view mental health care and use it wisely and effectively, Fancher offers a new way of understanding the place of mental health care in our society.