Ride in the back of the ambulance with Sherry Jones Mayo
Share the innermost feelings of emergency services workers as they encountertrauma, tragedy, redemption, and even a little humor. Sherry Jones Mayo has beenan Emergency Medical Technician, Emergerncy Room Nurse, and an on-scene criticalincident debriefer for Hurricane Katrina. Most people who have observed orexperienced physical, mental or emotional crisis have single perspectives. Thisbook allows readers to stand on both sides of the gurney; it details a progressionfrom innocence to enlightened caregiver to burnout, glimpsing into each stage personallyand professionally.
Emergency Service Professionals Praise "Confessions of a Trauma Junkie"
"A must read for those who choose to subject themselves to life at its best and atits worst. Sherry offers insight in the Emergency Response business that most peoplecannot imagine."
--Maj Gen Richard L. Bowling, former Commanding General, USAF Auxiliary (CAP)
"Sherry Mayo shares experiences and unique personal insights of first responders.Told with poetry, sensitivity and a touch of humor at times, all are real, providingviews into realities EMTs, Nurses, and other first responders encounter. Recommendedreading for anyone working with trauma, crises, critical incidents in anyprofession."
-- George W. Doherty, MS, LPC, President Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute
"Sherry has captured the essence of working with people who have witnessedtrauma. It made me cry, it made me laugh, it helped me to understand differentlythe work of our Emergency Services Personnel. I consider this a 'MUST READ' forall of us who wish to be helpful to those who work in these professions."
--Dennis Potter, LMSW, CAAC, FAAETS, ICISF Instructor
"Confessions of a Trauma Junkie is an honest, powerful, and moving account ofthe emotional realities of helping others Sherry Mayo gives us a privileged lookinto the healing professions she knows firsthand. The importance of peer supportis beautifully illustrated. This book will deepen the readers respect for those whoserve."
--Victor Welzant, PsyD, Director of Education and Training, The International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc
Learn more at www.SherryJonesMayo.com
Available in trade paper, hardcover, and eBook formats
From the Reflections of America Series
Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com
MED003010 Medical: Allied Health Services - Emergency Medical Services
BIO017520 Biography & Autobiography: Medical - General
PSY022040 Psychology: Psychopathology - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Widely popularized images of unobtainable and damaging feminine ideals can be a cause of profound disjunction between women and their bodies. A consequence of this dissonance is an embodied performance of these ideals with the potential development of disordered eating practices, such as anorexia nervosa. This book develops a spirituality of anorexia by suggesting that these eating disorders are physical symptoms of the general repression of feminine nature in our culture. Furthermore, it puts forward Goddess feminism as a framework for a healing therapeutic model to address anorexia and more broadly, the "slender ideal" touted by society. The book focuses on the female body in contemporary society, specifically the development of anorexia nervosa, and what this expression communicates about female embodiment. Drawing upon the work of a variety of theorists, social commentators, liberation theologians and thealogians, it discusses the benefits of adopting female-focused myths, symbols and rituals, drawing upon the work of Marion Woodman and Naomi Goldenberg. Ultimately, it theorises a thealogical approach to anorexia aimed at displacing the damaging discourses that undermine women in the twenty-first century. Offering an alternative model of spirituality and embodiment for contemporary women, this book will be of keen interest to scholars of theology, religious studies, gender studies and psychology.

This book introduces the concept of the "Person One Could Have Become" and shows the importance of mourning for individuals with traumatic experiences. The Person One Could Have Become is conceptualized as personality and physical characteristics that could have emerged if an individual, at the right time, had received or opted for an appropriate quantity and quality of stimuli and experiences, which in turn would have enabled the person to make more mature and independent choices. Consequences of potentially traumatic events bear non-linear, meta-folding, and multicontextual meaning unique to each being-in-the-world. Many people with a history of trauma tend to mystify their existence in order to survive. This book contains an overview of the ramifications of abuse and neglect on personality, as well as the consequences of pregnancy loss and the specific loss of possibility and its co-occurrence with abuse and neglect. It looks at examples from daily life and two cases of traumatized individuals who differ in their background and experience of trauma, as well as in their struggles during psychotherapy. This book is not intended as a treatment manual, nor does it advocate for any particular therapeutic approach. It is, rather, an encouragement of a way of living. Indeed, a reasonable mourning of the Person One Could Have Become may set the individual free-also such with the history of trauma-for the road beyond the traditional psychotherapy outcome, the road toward authenticity.

In Decoding Madness, forensic neuropsychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. Richard Lettieri gives a behind-the-scenes look at criminal psychology through case studies from his over 30 years of experience as a court-appointed and privately retained psychologist dealing with some of the most heinous crimes imaginable. From cases like Tina, who seriously injured her boyfriend and stabbed his son to death, to Michael who stabbed his mother in the back, believing she was the evil force causing the sun to descend upon the earth and gobble him up, Decoding Madness is filled with gripping stories and forensic analysis told from the author's perspective. Through psychological examination, it is his job to conclude whether these individuals are truly guilty and understand their actions are wrong, or if these individuals are not guilty due by reason of insanity and instead require treatment. Integrating insights from psychoanalysis, psychology and neuroscience, Dr. Lettieri contends that the legal system's view of human nature as governed by rationality is anachronistic. Nonetheless, he argues that our criminal justice system is slowly bending towards the humane. Decoding Madness offers a nuanced and in-depth psychological understating of defendants and their personal complexities beyond the usual clinical accounts offered by forensic psychologists. The book introduces the novel idea of the daimonic as a basic force of human nature that is the source of our constructive and destructive capacities. The venue of the criminal justice system, with its daily exposure to primal emotions, serves as a petri dish to investigate the full spectrum of our basic makeup.Dr. Lettieri brings these points home by presenting a nuts-and-bolts look into what it takes to complete psychological examinations of defendants accused of committing heinous crimes.

A comprehensive guide for clinicians working with patients engaging in self-injury, this book provides information on clinical conceptualization, risk and protective factors, ways to assess for NSSI, treatment approaches and strategies, and early intervention and prevention strategies. Focusing on ethical and cultural considerations unique to schools, clinical agencies, and private-practice settings, the authors provide a practical and in-depth discussion of clinical theory. Procedures for determining risk and the potential problems with risk assessment, especially concerning suicide risk, are addressed. In addition to numerous exercises, examples, and suggestions for practical interventions, the book includes a variety of detailed worksheets and resources to expand readers' level of understanding, monitor emerging trends, and provide a context for extended training. Several case studies are discussed and analyzed in order to highlight specific aspects of clinical conceptualization and treatment strategies. Drawn from a wide range of treatment populations and issues, this book is a valuable resource for clinicians and supervisors. The authors integrate outcomes-based research strategies and evidenced-based tools to help clinicians work with clients from diverse backgrounds.

Breaking through Schizophrenia builds on the ideas of Jacques Lacan who argued that schizophrenia is a deficient relationship to language, in particular the difficulty to master the metaphoric dimension of language, which children acquire by the Oedipal restructuring of the psyche. This book is thus a countercultural move to present a less damaging view and a more efficient treatment method for schizophrenic persons. Through a collection of published and unpublished articles, Ver Eecke traces the path of Lacanian thought. He discusses the importance of language for the development of human beings and examines the effectiveness of talk therapy through case studies with schizophrenic persons.

In 1884, the distinguished German jurist Daniel Paul Schreber suffered the first of a series of mental collapses that would afflict him for the rest of his life. In his madness, the world was revealed to him as an enormous architecture of nerves, dominated by a predatory God. It became clear to Schreber that his personal crisis was implicated in what he called a "crisis in God's realm," one that had transformed the rest of humanity into a race of fantasms. There was only one remedy; as his doctor noted: Schreber "considered himself chosen to redeem the world, and to restore to it the lost state of Blessedness. This, however, he could only do by first being transformed from a man into a woman...."

Now available in trade paperback, this is the heart-rending drama of one family's courage, heartbreak, sacrifice, and triumph in confronting an agonizing medical condition, written by two master storytellers.

Cory Friedman woke up one morning when he was five years old with the uncontrollable urge to twitch his neck and his life was never the same again. From that day forward his life became a hell of uncontrollable tics, urges, and involuntary utterances. Eventually he is diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive disorder, and Cory embarks on an excruciating journey from specialist to specialist, enduring countless combinations of medications in wildly varying doses. Soon it becomes unclear what tics are symptoms of his disease and what are side effects of the drugs. The only certainty is that it kept getting worse. Despite his lack of control, Cory is aware of every embarrassing movement, and sensitive to every person's reaction to his often aggravating presence. Simply put: Cory Friedman's life is a living hell.
AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE is the true story of one family's decades-long battle for survival in the face of extraordinary difficulties and a rigid medical establishment.

Despite the fact that we have been studying posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since at least the late 1800s, it remains prevalent and, in many cases intractable. Merleau-Ponty and a Phenomenology of PTSD: Hidden Ghosts of Traumatic Memory begins with the assertion that we struggle to successfully treat PTSD because we simply do not understand it well enough. Using the phenomenological approach of Maurice Merleau-Ponty - which focuses on the first-person, lived experience of the trauma victim - Merleau-Ponty and a Phenomenology of PTSD: Hidden Ghosts of Traumatic Memory focuses on reframing our understanding of combat trauma in two fundamental ways. First, the concepts of embodiment and adaptation give us an understanding of the human being as fundamentally adaptive. This allows us to view traumatic responses as adaptive as well. When the roots of traumatic injury become reframed in this way, combat-related PTSD can be understood more accurately as a set of symptoms borne of strength and survival rather than weakness or disorder. Second, phenomenology reveals that a different ghost haunts those who are afflicted by trauma. For the past century, trauma studies across disciplines have all assumed that the ghost of a singular traumatic event haunts the sufferer. While this is likely a part of the problem, further study shows that those who suffer from trauma are also haunted by the specter of a world without meaning. In other words, phenomenology reveals that what is injured in trauma is not just the mind or the body but the entire worldview of the individual. It is this aspect of the injury - the shattering loss of one's blueprint of the world - that is missing from other accounts of trauma. Rather than aim to upend previous research in the fields of psychology and neuroscience, Merleau-Ponty and a Phenomenology of PTSD: Hidden Ghosts of Traumatic Memory uses the phenomenological approach to bring them together and expand then. It is in this expansion that we are able to consider what we may have previously missed - which stands to improve our understanding and treatment of trauma in general.

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury moves beyond the basics to tackle the clinical and conceptual complexity of NSSI, with an emphasis on recent advances in both science and practice. Directed towards clinicians, researchers, and others wishing to advance their understanding of NSSI, this volume reviews and synthesizes recent empirical findings that clarify NSSI as a theoretical and clinical condition, as well as the latest efforts to assess, treat, and prevent NSSI. With expertly written chapters by leaders in the field, this is an essential guide to a disorder about which much is still to be known.

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury moves beyond the basics to tackle the clinical and conceptual complexity of NSSI, with an emphasis on recent advances in both science and practice. Directed towards clinicians, researchers, and others wishing to advance their understanding of NSSI, this volume reviews and synthesizes recent empirical findings that clarify NSSI as a theoretical and clinical condition, as well as the latest efforts to assess, treat, and prevent NSSI. With expertly written chapters by leaders in the field, this is an essential guide to a disorder about which much is still to be known.

In the past few decades, awareness of bipolar disorder has significantly increased, but understanding of the condition remains vague for most of the general public. Though the term itself is relatively recent, the condition has affected individuals for centuries and no more profoundly than in the arts. The historical connections among manic depression and such fields as poetry, writing, music, and painting have been previously documented. However, the impact of bipolar disorder on movie makers and its depiction on the screen has yet to be thoroughly examined. In The Bipolar Express: Manic Depression and the Movies, David Coleman provides an in-depth examination of the entwined natures of mood disorders and moviemaking. In this volume, Coleman looks at the writers, directors, and actors who have faced the mood swings and behavior that are hallmarks of this condition from Greta Garbo, Orson Welles, and Marilyn Monroe to Jonathan Winters, Carrie Fisher, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. In addition to recognizing the cinematic contributions of manic depressive filmmakers, the author also looks at movies that have portrayed bipolar disorder with varying degrees of accuracy including Citizen Kane, Rebel without a Cause, Breakfast at Tiffany s, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Aviator, and Silver Linings Playbook. From early silents of the twentieth century through critically acclaimed films of today, this book compares depictions of mood swings on screen with clinical examples of actual manic depression, carefully distinguishing real from stereotypical portrayals. This fascinating study is augmented by a concise filmography of more than 400 feature-length films from around the world with themes or characters relating to manic depressive illness. Though aimed at film fans and anyone interested in manic depression, mental illness, or related medical studies, this book will also prove valuable to medical and mental health professionals."

Is there life after Adderall?Andrew K. Smith s hooligan pranks and social impulsiveness paints a picture of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) before medication, and it would seem that the little orange pills could cure his mischief. But readers will furrow their brows as they enter The Adderall Empire, traveling with the author through the chemically conflicting mind states. Is working-memory training a feasible alternative? Readers will beg for the answer, hoping Andrew stops getting into trouble before his parents disown him or he winds up in jail. Again.Everyone is curious about Adderall. Young people abuse it, adults are addicted to it, teachers wish their students would take it, and parents consider prescriptions for their children. The Adderall Empire gives honest evidence of how working-memory training can change the life of a person with ADHD and provides readers with information about an alternative to ADHD prescriptions.Find out what it s like to exit the Empire "

Psychoanalytic Approaches to Problems in Living examines how psychoanalysts can draw on their training, reading, and clinical experience to help their patients address some of the recurrent challenges of everyday life. Sandra Buechler offers clinicians poetic, psychoanalytic, and experiential approaches to problems, drawing on her personal and clinical experience, as well as ideas from her reading, to confront challenges familiar to us all. Buechler addresses issues including difficulties of mourning, aging, living with uncertainty, finding meaningful work, transcending pride, bearing helplessness, and forgiving life's hardships. For those contemplating a clinical career, and those in its beginning stages, she suggests ways to prepare to face these quandaries in treatment sessions. More experienced practitioners will find echoes of themes that have run through their own clinical and personal life experiences. The chapters demonstrate that insights from a poem can often guide the clinician as well as concepts garnered from psychoanalytic theory and other sources. Buechler puts her questions to T. S. Eliot, Rainer Maria Rilke, Elizabeth Bishop, W. S. Merwin, Stanley Kunitz and many other poets and fiction writers. She "asks" Sharon Olds how to meet emergencies, Erich Fromm how to live vigorously, and Edith Wharton how to age gracefully, and brings their insights to bear as she addresses challenges that make frequent appearances in clinical sessions, and other walks of life. With a final section designed to improve training in the light of her practical findings, Psychoanalytic Approaches to Problems in Living is an essential book for all practicing psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

Psychoanalytic Approaches to Problems in Living examines how psychoanalysts can draw on their training, reading, and clinical experience to help their patients address some of the recurrent challenges of everyday life. Sandra Buechler offers clinicians poetic, psychoanalytic, and experiential approaches to problems, drawing on her personal and clinical experience, as well as ideas from her reading, to confront challenges familiar to us all. Buechler addresses issues including difficulties of mourning, aging, living with uncertainty, finding meaningful work, transcending pride, bearing helplessness, and forgiving life's hardships. For those contemplating a clinical career, and those in its beginning stages, she suggests ways to prepare to face these quandaries in treatment sessions. More experienced practitioners will find echoes of themes that have run through their own clinical and personal life experiences. The chapters demonstrate that insights from a poem can often guide the clinician as well as concepts garnered from psychoanalytic theory and other sources. Buechler puts her questions to T. S. Eliot, Rainer Maria Rilke, Elizabeth Bishop, W. S. Merwin, Stanley Kunitz and many other poets and fiction writers. She "asks" Sharon Olds how to meet emergencies, Erich Fromm how to live vigorously, and Edith Wharton how to age gracefully, and brings their insights to bear as she addresses challenges that make frequent appearances in clinical sessions, and other walks of life. With a final section designed to improve training in the light of her practical findings, Psychoanalytic Approaches to Problems in Living is an essential book for all practicing psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

The problems of readjustment, for the individual and for the business purse and for the state, which inevitably follow war are most important at the present moment. Almost five years after the end of the Great Conflict, many of these problems are still facing us, and it will take many more years before they are settled. One who is interested in the statistics of conditions will find many places in which they can be found. Although statistics show what exists or has existed, they seldom provide advice regarding the solutions. The present work is entirely lacking in statistics It is intended to be of assistance in the solution of some problems.

Insanity is no exception to the rule which requires a knowledge of the normal as an indispensable preliminary to a knowledge of the abnormal. This book, published in 1901, aimed to provide the first systematic examination of the disorders of the mind as arranged and correlated with the normal types from which they arringly depart.

The Psychotherapist's Own Psychotherapy: Patient and Clinician Perspectives lifts a curtain that has long shrouded the intimate alliances between therapists and those of their patients who share the same profession. In this unique volume, distinguished contributors explore the multi-faceted nature of the psychotherapy of psychotherapists from "both sides of the couch." The first-person narratives, clinical wisdom, and research findings gathered together in this book offer guidance about providing effective treatments to therapist patients.
Part I presents multiple theoretical positions that justify and guide the work of therapists' therapists. In Part II, eminent therapists write eloquently and intimately about their own experiences as patients. Their personal reflections offer valuable insights about what is healing and educational about psychotherapy. These narratives are followed by several chapters reviewing scientific research on therapists in personal therapy, including the first report of relevant findings from a major international survey of psychotherapists.
In Part III, celebrated therapists from different theoretical orientations offer guidance on conducting therapy with fellow therapists. They reflect on the many challenges, dilemmas, and rewards that arise when two people do the same work. Their chapters offer wisdom and warnings about such issues as power dynamics, boundary maintenance, therapist self-disclosure, the termination process, and the post-termination phase of the relationship. These first-hand accounts are enhanced by research overviews on coducting personal treatment, including a new study of American therapists commissioned for the book. ThePsychotherapist's Own Psychotherapy: Patient and Clinician Perspectives is an essential resource for practitioners and students of all orientations and disciplines.

In Suicide Prevention Contracting: The Pitfalls, Perils, and Seven Safer Alternatives, Edwards and Goj expose one of the biggest myths operating in health care and human services for forty years or more. This book will challenge clinicians and their superiors who see Suicide Prevention Contracting (SPC) as a state-of-the-art standard of care intervention. No medical or mental health care professional, educator, lawyer, or health and human services decision maker can afford to ignore what this book presents. A family of new clinical terms and interlinked concepts, describing virtually every aspect of SPC is clearly articulated and ready for use in the workplace. Not until now has a book so simply yet comprehensively explained the widespread troubling practice of SPC. Written in an accessible narrative style, this landmark book presents vital information about a questionable suicide prevention intervention operating within this era of evidence-based practice and personal legal risk protection and, in doing so, offers seven safer alternative procedures.