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Eric Maisel, “The Future of Mental Health: Deconstructing the Mental Disorder Paradigm”ISBN: 1412862612, 1412862493 | 2015 | EPUB/PDF | 235 pages | 584 KB/2 MBThe Future of Mental Health drills to the heart of the current mental health crisis, where hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide receive unwarranted “mental disorder diagnoses.” It paints a picture of how mental health providers can improve their practices to better serve individuals in distress and outlines necessary steps for a mental health revolution. Eric Maisel’s goal is to inject more human interaction into the therapeutic process.Maisel powerfully deconstructs the “mental disorder” paradigm that is the foundation of current mental health practices. The author presents a revolutionary alternative, a “human experience”paradigm. He sheds a bright light on the differences between so-called “psychiatric medication”and mere chemicals with powerful effects, explains why the DSM-5 is silent on causes, silent on treatment, and wedded to illegitimate “symptom pictures.” Maisel describes powerful helping alternatives like communities of care, and explains why one day “human experience specialists” may replace current mental health professionals.An important book for both service providers and service users, The Future of Mental Health brilliantly unmasks current mental health practices and goes an important step further: it describes what we are obliged to do in order to secure better mental health services—and better mental health—for everyone.“Eric Maisel’s book is extraordinary. Profoundly innovative and revolutionary, it describes the Herculean but not impossible tasks facing the mental health establishment and reshuffles all the cards in psychiatry.” — Patrick Landman, Psychiatrist, Child Psychiatrist, Chairman, STOP DSM France“Dr. Maisel’s bold new book The Future of Mental Health is a refreshing seed in what otherwise might be considered a forlorn mental health landscape. Maisel not only paints a picture of what a new mental health countryside could look like but he also provides useful suggestions of how we might get there and why it might be important that we start heading in that direction today.” — Tim Carey, Head of Research, Centre for Remote Health, Central Australian Health Service; Chair, Regional, Rural, and Remote Advisory Group, Australian Psychological Society“Maisel really throws the gauntlet down with this one, and the psychiatric community will find it difficult to ignore his challenge.” — Mark D. White, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the College of Staten Island/CUNY, blogger at Psychology Today, and author of The Illusion of Well-BeingSome Amazon reviews :1) ByMareeon December 15, 2015This book is life saving… literally… it has the power to revolutionise ‘the system’ and save, transform, or heal, you and your children’s lives.Mental health is an issue that impacts every individual on the planet. After all, human beings are distinctly human by virtue of the mind. Yet, it might be thought a Sisyphean task attempting to deconstruct the mental disorder paradigm; an undertaking only reserved for the courageous visionary intellectual, or perhaps, best left to Sisyphus. Fortunately, the author of this book, belongs to the former category, Eric Maisel is a trailblazing leader in mental health reform.A notoriously arcane discipline, mental health is often clothed in unnecessary complexity, steeped in ‘expert’ language that is exclusionary to the very people it professes to help. Herein lies one of the book’s many great strengths. Written in a clear, direct, and personable manner, it is highly accessible and user-friendly without diluting its erudition. The overall argument is methodically presented in bite-size chapters that may be read and digested with ease.Shining the spotlight on phrases like ‘mental illness’ and ‘mental disorders’ illuminates that strange linguistic beast named psychology, a pseudo-medical mongrel barking fiction into fact. Firing like abstract weapons, ‘mental disorder’ labels inflict a powerful psychological ambush… BANG… Anxiety… BANG-BANG… Clinical Depression … BANG-BANG-BANG… Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Shot down in a rapid-fire volley of vapidness can keep you psychically trapped. Navigating out of this nightmare language-labyrinth is truly your psychological nemesis.Woven in and between the lines are various strategies or tactics that can assist to ameliorate distress and prevent the pseudo-medical mongrel from snapping at your mind. However, the baby is definitely not thrown out with the bathwater. To the contrary, you will simply become more enlightened, informed, and empowered, to make decisions based on information that your own service provider never discussed. Nowhere is this more evident than the clarifying distinction between chemicals and medication or drugs.A new type of health practitioner called the ‘Human Experience Specialist’ is promoted; someone educated in the fallacies of psychotherapy, yet nonetheless, highly attuned and equipped to provide an alternative pathway for help. Hopefully, in the near future, this very welcome role will exist. Until then, I suggest you do what I did and turn to this book instead. It is your first point of call and primary resource to both protect and empower yourself. It sets you free to venture forth in the twilight zone currently known as ‘mental health’.In conclusion, this book is your ‘answer’. It is a brilliant start from which to address serious issues confronting ‘the system’, ‘mental health’, and even the meaning of life… Your Life! Experience the power and sense of freedom from such a liberating discovery by buying, reading, and acting upon the profound wisdom contained within this book. Permit its answers to sweep through your mind like a psychic breath of fresh air, inspiring you to take charge, take back control, and take immediate action. There is no greater investment you could possibly make than to purchase this astute text. The best outcome for the future of your own mental health or that of your children depends on it.Start your own revolution today. Self-advocate and prescribe this book like medicine. It is the ‘drug of choice’ or ‘reading-pill’ that everyone should take!2) Byvanessaon December 15, 2015Dynamite. Eric Maisel’s latest book is a brilliant expose of the insanity of our modern mental health system: a system that throws all the various and difficult problems of living into one big basket called mental illness. Dr Maisel does not flinch as he forays into the politics of health which includes the massive profits to be had by drug companies, psychiatrists and the whole mental health machine. This book holds a spotlight on the disturbing facts of a dangerous system that would seek to medicalise and medicate the whole gamut of difficult human experiences.Dr Maisel deftly describes how the status quo of the mental health system is maintained when a person struggling to cope with sadness, grief, relationship challenges, financial pressures, lack of meaning or any of the myriad of life difficulties seeks help, in good faith, from mainstream mental health professionals and comes away with a medical diagnosis and a prescription. Dr Maisel exposes the extent of this illogical, superficial and outrightly dangerous model of care: a model that is irrelevant to the dynamics of being human and highly questionable, to say the least, in its efficacy and safety.A compassionate, challenging and strangely comforting book. It offers a vision of an alternative mental health future: genuine, effective and compassionate help for the difficulties of living that can overwhelm any one of us from time to time.If you read only one book in 2016 make it this one.3) ByFullMindon December 15, 2015“Eric Maisel’s new book The Future of Mental Health could well become the go-to work on revolutionizing the field of mental health. It presents a radical new way of viewing human suffering, feeling, thinking, and behaving and should be welcomed by providers and receivers of psychiatric services, parents of vulnerable children, and anyone interested in their own emotional and mental health.”4) ByAmazon Customeron December 15, 2015There is an urgent need to revolutionize and humanize mental health care in the United States and around the world and Eric Maisel’s “The Future of Mental Health” is a major contribution in helping to identify the problems areas and point the way towards much-needed improvements. In what should be required reading for all who provide and receive mental health services, Dr. Maisel envisions a new paradigm and framework that restores compassion, complexity, and dignity to the care of suffering souls. A ground-breaking book, a clarion call and a bold vision.5) ByLeilani Squireon December 16, 2015I work with veterans in emotional pain. They need much more than a PTSD diagnosis and a regimen of meds and indifference. They need their experiences, and the consequences of their experiences, honored. In The Future of Mental Health Eric Maisel, a veteran himself, explains the difference between merely labeling sufferers and actually helping them deal with their experiences. I highly recommend The Future of Mental Health as a breakthrough book and a much needed call to action.6) ByElena Grecoon January 11, 2016If you’re a psychotherapist or counselor of any sort, this book is a must-read. If you are in therapy, if you are thinking of being in therapy, if you know someone in therapy, or if you have been in therapy, this book is a must-read. If you are a parent, this book is definitely a must-read. THE FUTURE OF MENTAL HEALTH is a beautiful, ground-shaking and ground-breaking book! You will not see the mental health system the same way after reading it.Dr. Maisel addresses what it means to be human. He also addresses the abject failure of the mental health profession to help people in a meaningful or beneficial way. He explains why this is so.Maisel talks about what a professional “helper” of people with emotional issues might do that would actually and truly help people. He describes a “human experience specialist” who would interact genuinely and productively with people who want and need help with their problems.In addition to tackling a very hot and dangerous topic with common sense and courage, Maisel employs his usual mastery of language in making the book highly readable and enjoyable for laypeople as well as for industry professionals.Maisel writes eloquently and effectively, and his book is filled with ideas for overhauling the current system so that it truly benefits those who need it. This is a very good thing, because this system is harming many of us, including the potential of our children. This is a book whose time has come. Do yourself a favor and read it.7) ByTimon December 15, 2015See my (Tim Carey) editorial review to understand the 5 stars. Dr Maisel’s book challenges the current mental disorder establishment and provides suggestions for a more humane and compassionate approach to understanding and dealing with misery and distress.8) ByCatherine Karnitison January 9, 2016This important book addresses the problems inherent in the mental health profession, which often focuses on diagnostic analysis and pharmaceuticals, in lieu of offering help to someone suffering from mental distress, by trying to understand what sort of human and life concerns are affecting the person in need. Dr. Maisel lucidly and skillfully addresses a full spectrum of issues that all mental health service providers face and offers a practical blueprint for how to change the mental health paradigm. Some of the ideas he proposes, in addition to shifts in the language and practices of psychologists, are the human experience specialist and the Brooklyn Project. Dr. Maisel presents his ideas and practical approaches in a way that is accessible and informative to the lay person.9) ByAmazon Customeron January 17, 2016The Future of Mental Health is a must for anyone who want to help others and themselves deal with the challenges of living in a deeply humane and empowering way. Eric Maisel illustrates how we need to have open discussions with people about their distress, by listening, suggesting what may be happening and developing a solution in collaboration. I particularly love Maisel’s suggestions about providing wise counsel, as opposed to labels and medication, which is predominant within our society. The book is also very much a “how to” guide as opposed to only providing philosophical discussion. The strategies that I have written down on the side of each page will accompany me throughout my life and practice.Maisel’s writing is also deeply profound and illustrates tremendous understanding of the human condition. To me, Maisel is along the same calibre as Dorothy Rowe, a psychologist who illustrates compassionate insight into the difficulties of living and how we need to change our thoughts and behaviour, but in combination of discovering who we are and creating our own meaningful life.Filled with realism and philosophical enquiry, in my opinion, Eric Maisel’s The Future of Mental Health follows the thought of wise philosophers throughout the ages, such as Socrates and Epictetus, and reveals the challenges of life, particularly how man and woman need to not only face life’s challenges, but to become stronger as a result.For these reasons, I couldn’t recommend The Future of Mental Health highly enough, and will use the book as guidance in my life and practice.