Exercise-Based Interventions for People with Mental Illness: A Clinical Guide to Physical Activity as Part of Treatment provides clinicians with detailed, practical strategies for developing, implementing and evaluating physical activity-based interventions for people with mental illness. The book covers exercise strategies specifically tailored for common mental illnesses, such as depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and more. Each chapter presents an overview of the basic psychopathology of each illness, a justification and rationale for using a physical activity intervention, an overview of the evidence base, and clear and concise instructions on practical implementation. In addition, the book covers the use of mobile technology to increase physical activity in people with mental illness, discusses exercise programming for inpatients, and presents behavioral and psychological approaches to maximize exercise interventions. Final sections provide practical strategies to both implement and evaluate physical activity interventions.

This book explores feminine archetypes and mythological figures in African and European traditions with an underlying goal of describing the foundations of social status for women. The author provides a rich corpus of mythology and tales to illustrate aspects of female and mother-daughter relationships. Diop analyzes the symbolic aspects of maternity and femininity, describing the social meaning of the matrix, breasts, and breastfeeding. A retrospective of female characters in African literature brings an interesting approach to explore the figures of femininity and maternity in society. After an extensive analysis of African mythology and tales, the author proposes a way to integrate them in the clinical psychotherapy as a projective material. The analysis of clinical cases offers an example of how this material can be used in therapy with women from African descent.

Decades of research have unequivocally shown that life stress is a central factor in the onset and course of almost every psychiatric disorder. However, the processes by which stress influences mental health are complex, and the integration of the myriad of biological and psychological systems involved requires a multidisciplinary perspective. Fortunately, scientists working from diverse vantage points have made huge advances in unpacking the complexities of stress-disorder relations. The Oxford Handbook of Stress and Mental Health provides a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the science of stress and mental health. Topics covered include assessment issues, the role of stress in various mental disorders, developmental influences and individual difference factors that predict reactivity to stress, and treatment of stress-related mental health problems. Internationally recognized scholars in the field of stress and stress-related disorders have contributed their diverse expertise, providing both depth and breadth in terms of understanding stress and mental health. Chapters 1 to 4 provide a critical discussion of assessment issues in the domains of stress exposure and stress response. Chapters 5 to 14 review the relation of stress exposures to a broad range of mental health outcomes across the lifespan. Chapters 15 to 25 are concerned with understanding how the stress response unfolds at both psychological and neurobiological levels. Lastly, Chapters 26 to 33 addresses stress adaptation and resilience, as well as evidence-based treatments for stress and stress-related disorder. This volume will constitute an invaluable resource for students, established scientists, and clinicians looking for a comprehensive treatment of the topic of stress and mental health.

This book sets out to clarify five key Freudian concepts (the pleasure principle, the primary processes, the unconscious, transference, and the reality principle) elaborated early on in Freud's work but, it is argued, rarely understood-even by psychoanalysts themselves. It examines in turn the post-Freudian paradigms employed in neuropsychoanalysis, Lacan, Zizek, object relations, and psychoanalytic approaches to identity politics, and in doing so reveals the extent to which they have been distorted and repressed in these new contexts. Over the course of the book the author demonstrates how Freud's unpublished Project for a Scientific Psychology can be seen as a complete system of core concepts that both ground psychoanalysis in neurology and also introduce a vital challenge to the brain sciences. This book will appeal to students and scholars of psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, and psychoanalytic theory.

This new edition emphasizes the unique contribution of this longstanding text in the integration of mind/body relationships. The concept of stress, as defined and elaborated in Chapter 1, the primary efferent biological mechanisms of the human stress response, as described in Chapter 2, and the link from stress arousal to disease, as defined in Chapter 3, essentially remains the same. However, updates in microanatomy, biochemistry and tomography are added to these chapters. All other chapters will be updated as well, as there has been significant changes in the field over the past eight years.

Developmental Pathways to Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders provides essential understanding on how disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) is characterized, its early markers and etiology, and the empirically-based treatment for the disorder. The book covers features and assessment of various DBDs, including oppositional-defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and antisocial personality disorder, the psychological markers of externalizing problems, such as irritability and anger, common elements of effective evidence-based treatments for DBD for behavioral treatments, cognitive therapies, and family and community therapies. A final section discusses new and emerging insights in the prevention and treatment of DBD.

The Clinician's Guide to Treatment and Management of Youth with Tourette Syndrome and Tic Disorders provides clinicians with cognitive behavioral therapy concepts and skills to manage young patients dealing with Tourette Syndrome (TS) and tic disorders. This book focuses on improving the quality of life, patient resiliency, habit reversal techniques, talking about tics with peers, and overcoming tic-related avoidance. Each chapter looks at the nature and background of common challenges for youth with TS experience, reviews empirically-informed rationale for using specific cognitive-behavioral strategies, discusses the nature and implementation of these strategies, and concludes with a case that illustrates a particular strategy. Medication management is covered in its own chapter, and clinical excerpts are used throughout the book to illustrate key techniques that can be incorporated into immediate practice.

Adolescent Dating Violence: Theory, Research, and Prevention summarizes the course, risk/protective factors, consequences and treatment/prevention of adolescent dating violence. Dating violence is defined as physical, sexual, psychological, and cyber behavior meant to cause emotional, physical, or social harm to a current or former intimate partner. The book discusses research design and measurement in the field, focuses on the recent influx of longitudinal studies, and examines prevention and intervention initiatives. Divided into five sections, the book begins by reviewing theory on and consequences of dating violence. Section II discusses risk factors and protective factors such as peer influences, substance use, and past exposure to violence in the family of origin. Section III discusses how social and cultural factors can influence teen dating violence, addressing the prevalence of dating violence among different ethnicities and among LGBTQ teens, and the influence of social media. Section IV discusses recent research priorities including gender inequality, measurement, psychological abuse, and the dual nature of dating violence during adolescence. Section V reviews evidence-based practice for treatment and prevention across various age groups and settings.

This important book describes the effects of a range of medical, psychological, and neurological conditions on brain functioning, specifically cognition. After a brief introduction of brain anatomy and function focusing on neural systems and their complex role in cognition, this book covers common disorders across several medical specialties, as well as injuries that can damage a variety of neural networks. The authors review findings on associations between these conditions and cognitive domains such as executive function, memory, attention, and learning, and describe possible causal pathways between diseases and cognitive impairment. Later chapters describe potential strategies for prevention, improvement, and treatment. The book's topics include Cognition in affective disorders Cerebrovascular disease and cognition Cognitive sequelae of sepsis Traumatic brain injury and cognition Cognitive deficits associated with drug use Obstructive sleep apnea and cognition Cognitive function in pulmonary disease The Brain at Risk reflects the current interest in the links between body, mind, and brain, and will be of great value to researchers and practitioners interested in neuroscience, neuropsychology, and clinical research in the cognitive and behavioral consequences of brain injury and disease.

This book concerns clinical psychology, but it is most concerned with the world outside the clinic. That world-where culture, history, and economy are found-radically impacts the public's mental health. However these worldly considerations often do not feature centrally in the science and practice of clinical psychology, a subfield of psychology seemingly dedicated to mental health. Desai offers a corrective by travelling out of the clinic and into the world, exploring ideas, movements, and thinkers that help broaden our approach to well-being, by situating it within its cultural, historical, and sociopolitical contexts. The book aims to be an intercultural journey itself-encountering Buddhism, phenomenology, Edmund Husserl, Mahatma Gandhi, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. along the way. Featuring a Foreword by Jeffrey Sachs, the book positions pressing matters such as social justice, racial justice, and environmental justice as integral components of good mental health work. The book will be of interest to readers interested in cultural and community approaches to psychological science and practice.

This book provides an overview of risk and protective factors for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth and emerging adults to inform the clinical practice of mental health professionals who work with this population. Documentation of LGBTQ+ health disparities is well-established, but much of that work has focused on adults. Additionally, while there has been a greater push for the integration of mental health practice with general healthcare delivery in recent years, there are few resources for educating mental health professionals on how to work within interdisciplinary teams to address the psychological, physical, and behavioral health care needs of LGBTQ+ people. This book addresses gaps in the literature, such as the needs of young age groups and integration of physical and mental approaches to care, which have traditionally been neglected in the health disparities literature for psychologists and other mental health professionals. This book is grounded in Minority Stress Theory, as well as multicultural, intersectional, and positive youth development frameworks. It emphasizes holistic health perspectives, integrated care approaches (of mental health with general health service delivery), and interdisciplinary team efforts targeting both the psychological and physical health needs of children, adolescents, and emerging adults.

The purpose of A Humane Vision of Clinical Psychology, Volume II, is to encourage clinical and personal reflection on the part of reading clinicians, so as to foster more thought about the meaning and complexities of the therapeutic encounter. It does so by offering three clinical examples and a searching discussion of what each might teach us about the case at hand, ourselves, and the world. The book begins with an honest exploration of the limitations accompanying any and every attempt to write about the action of psychotherapy, which the first volume characterised as ineffable. More particularly, it is suggested that the deepest therapeutic phenomenon, experiential "proximity," is itself neither fully observable to the participants nor capturable by a verbal account. These concessions, which effectively confine the therapeutic "mechanism" to the air of every encounter, threaten to make descriptions of psychotherapy useless. However, while we can never rightly describe the fundamental cause of change, we can describe its observable corollaries. It is then suggested that certain therapeutic postures-those of kindness, openness, and sameness-facilitate the expansion of the other's cognitive apparatus and thereby the "knowns" that inhabit their minds (the main goal of therapy, per Volume I). A Humane Vision of Clinical Psychology, Volume II, is valuable for therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other practitioners as well as graduate and undergraduate students in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy, mental health, social work, and philosophy.

Newly updated edition of the highly successful core text for using cognitive behaviour therapy with children and young people The previous edition of Think Good, Feel Good was an exciting, practical resource that pioneered the way mental health professionals approached Cognitive Behaviour Therapy with children and young people. This new edition continues the work started by clinical psychologist Paul Stallard, and provides a range of flexible and highly appealing materials that can be used to structure and facilitate work with young people. In addition to covering the core elements used in CBT programmes, it incorporates ideas from the third wave CBT therapies of mindfulness, compassion focused therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy. It also includes a practical series of exercises and worksheets that introduce specific concepts and techniques. Developed by the author and used extensively in clinical practice, Think Good, Feel Good, Second Edition: A CBT Workbook for Children and Young People starts by introducing readers to the origin, basic theory, and rationale behind CBT and explains how the workbook should be used. Chapters cover elements of CBT including identifying thinking traps; core beliefs; controlling feelings; changing behaviour; and more. Written by an experienced professional with all clinically tested material Fully updated to reflect recent developments in clinical practice Wide range of downloadable materials Includes ideas for third wave CBT, Mindfulness, Compassion Focused Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Think Good, Feel Good, Second Edition: A CBT Workbook for Children and Young People is a "must have" resource for clinical psychologists, child and adolescent psychiatrists, community psychiatric nurses, educational psychologists, and occupational therapists. It is also a valuable resource for those who work with young people including social workers, school nurses, practice counsellors, teachers and health visitors.

Although many books are written about bereavement, very few are written about the fear of one's own death and most of these focus chiefly on terminal illness. In contrast, this book looks at the ways in which the fear of death operates on a back burner throughout our lives and how it influences the choices we make and the paths that we follow in life. The author presents a moral hierarchy' of behavior used in coping with the fear of death and dying.

"As a physician who specializes in addiction medicine and drug withdrawal and written widely on them, I recommend Dr. Breggin's book to every health professional who deals with anyone taking psychiatric drugs. He gives highly useful information and reasons for stopping or avoiding them. It's an excellent one-stop source of information about psychiatric drug effects and withdrawal. Prescribers, therapists, patients, and families will benefit from this guidebook." Charles L. Whitfield, MD
Bestselling author of "Healing the Child Within" and many other books

"Peter Breggin has more experience in safely withdrawing psychiatric patients from medication than any other psychiatrist. In this book he shares his lifetime of experience. All of our patients deserve the benefit of our obtaining that knowledge." Bertram Karon, PhD
Professor of Psychology, Michigan State University
Author, The Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia
Former President of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association

"This is such an important book. Describing the problem of withdrawal from psychiatric drugs in detail, and providing clear advice regarding how to deal with this problem as Peter has done so well in this book, is long overdue. For decades, the belief system that is mainstream psychiatry has denied the existence of withdrawal problems from the substances they prescribe so widely. In reality, withdrawal problems with psychiatric drugs is a common occurrence. Because of psychiatry's reckless denial of this real and common problem, millions of people worldwide have not had the support and care they desperately need when attempting to come off psychiatric drugs, often been erroneously advised that these problems are confirmation of the existence of their supposed original so-called 'psychiatric illness.' Dr. Breggin's book is therefore both timely and necessary." Terry Lynch, MD
Physician and Psychotherapist
Author of "Beyond Prozac: Healing Mental Suffering Without Drugs and Selfhood: A Key to the Recovering of
Emotional Well Being," "Mental Health and the Prevention of Mental Health Problems"

"Dr. Peter Breggin has written an invaluable reference for mental health professionals and lay-persons alike who are seeking a way out of dependency on psychiatric drugs. He describes the many dangers of psychiatric medication in straightforward research-based and contextually nuanced terms. Most helpfully, he articulates a method of empathic, person-centered psychotherapy as an alternative to the prevailing emotionally and system disengaged drug-centered approach. In this book, Dr. Breggin systematically outlines how to safely withdraw a patient from psychiatric medication with rich case examples drawn with the detail and sensitivity to individual and situational differences that reveal not only his extensive clinical experience, but his clear, knowledgeable, and compassionate vision of a more humane form of treatment. In this volume, Dr. Peter Breggin has again demonstrated that he is a model of what psychiatry can and should be. This is an indispensable text for both mental health trainees and experienced practitioners seeking a practical alternative to the dominant drug-centric paradigm." Gerald Porter, PhD
Vice President for Academic Affairs
School of Professional Psychology at Forest Institute

"This much needed book and guide to psychiatric medication withdrawal is clearly written and easy to understand. As people become more empowered and able to inform themselves about the effects of pharmaceuticals, practitioners will be called upon to wean their patients off of damaging medications. This book will provide that guidance. Thank you Dr. Breggin for having the courage to oppose conventional psychiatric thinking and the caring to improve the quality of life for individuals who are ready to experience their own innate healing instead of reaching for a pill to mask the symptoms." Melanie Sears, RN, MBA
Author, "Humanizing Health Care and Choose Your Words"

"Today many psychologists, nurses, social workers, and counselors are struggling with how to help adults and the parents of children who are over-medicated or who wish to reduce or stop taking their psychiatric drugs. Dr. Breggin's book shows non-prescribing professionals, as well as prescribers, how to respond to their patient's needs in an informed, ethical, and empowering fashion." Sarton Weinraub, PhD
Clinical Psychologist
Director, New York Person-Centered Resource Center, NYC

This is the first book to establish guidelines and to assist prescribers and therapists in withdrawing their patients from psychiatric drugs, including those patients with long-term exposure to antipsychotic drugs, benzodiazepines, stimulants, antidepressants, and mood stabilizers. It describes a method developed by the author throughout years of clinical experience, consultations with experienced colleagues, and scientific research. Based on a person-centered collaborative approach, with patients as partners, this method builds on a cooperative and empathic team effort involving prescribers, therapists, patients, and their families or support network.

The author, known for such books as "Talking Back to Prozac, Toxic Psychiatry, "and "Medication Madness," is a lifelong reformer and scientist in mental health whose work has brought about significant change in psychiatric practice. This book provides critical information about when to consider psychiatric drug reduction or withdrawal, and how to accomplish it as safely, expeditiously, and comfortably as possible. It offers the theoretical framework underlying this approach along with extensive scientific information, practical advice, and illustrative case studies that will assist practitioners in multiple ways, including in how to:

Recognize common and sometimes overlooked adverse drug effects that may require withdrawal Treat emergencies during dr

Until fairly recently, women?s mental health and the services that address it have suffered serious neglect in the research literature. This new volume is intended to fill this information void. In Women?s Mental Health Services, authorities from around the country and from a variety of perspectives take on such key topics as empowerment, substance abuse, severe mental illness, and interpersonal violence as they relate to women. In Part I, the contributors examine service delivery organization, gender and racial service disparities, and challenges for women as mental health administrators. Part II looks at empowerment issues, severe mental illness and trauma, and at-risk populations among women.

Addressing some of the most recent research and programs in women?s mental health care, Women?s Mental Health Services provides the advanced-level student with a broad survey of the activity in this underserved area and brings busy community and mental health providers up-to-date on the work of many of their colleagues.

Bruce Lubotsky Levin is editor of the Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research and Associate Professor at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute and College of Public Health, University of South Florida. Andrea K. Blanch is Associate Commissioner for Programs, and Ann Jennings is Director of Trauma Recovery Services, Maine Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services.

In Patient-Centric Analytics in Health Care: Driving Value in Clinical Settings and Psychological Practice, James J. Gillespie and Gregory J. Privitera introduce a framework that explores the utility of analytics for managing care that is based on six key inputs of the health care system: patients, policy makers, providers, pharmacies, pharmaceuticals, and payers. Understanding the roles of these 6 P's and the utility of analytics to promote data-driven decision models can lead to new innovations. These improvements can enhance quality, increase access, and reduce costs, and thereby drive value for the most important stakeholders in health care: the patients. As the accessibility and volume of data continues to increase, there is a growing desire to utilize data to guide and optimize decision-making in health care environments. There is a wealth of data in health care organizations and much of it is not fully utilized. In today's climate, these organizations are under increased regulatory and financial pressures to deliver measurable value, particularly as it relates to the quality of patient care in clinical and diagnostic settings. This book includes short contributions from practitioners, including Laurie Branch, Puneet Chahal, Patrick C. Cunningham, Star* Cunningham, Matthew Dreckmeier, Joseph P. Gaspero, Sherri Matis-Mitchell, Gail Mayeaux, Edwin K. Morris, Plamen Petrov, Steven Press, Andrew J. Privitera, Derek Walton, and Daniel Yunker.

"This brilliant and beautifully written book invokes a radical reorientation of the treatment of psychosis" Juliet Flower MacCannell, Author of Figuring Lacan and The Hysteric's Guide to the Future Female Subject. "Bret Fimiani's book offers an illuminating presentation of the Lacanian approach to psychosis thanks to his clear style which presents Lacanian concepts with a wonderful accuracy, illustrated by examples from his psychoanalytic practice. The dynamic of his investigation challenges the fear of psychosis with testimonies of lived experiences, the Hearing Voices Network, and analysts who claim the unclaimed intelligence at work in psychosis." Francoise Davoine, co-author of History Beyond Trauma This book advances a theory of transference-in-psychosis with the aim of provoking a change in the way the experience of psychosis is understood and thus, clinically treated. It examines the function of 'ethics' in the 'installation' of transference in the treatment of psychosis and contends that the aim of the psychoanalytic experience is the creation of a new ethic for the analysand and for the treatment. Beginning from the premise that the body of the psychotic is a site of social contestation, the author draws upon the work of Freud, Lacan, Deleuze & Guattari and Apollon to reframe the problem of the 'body' (as an effect of language) and its relation to transference, and ethics, in treating psychosis. It argues that psychosis still has much to teach psychoanalysis about how psychoanalysis must continue to change in order to create/offer an approach that is effective for psychosis (versus neurosis) and provides a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory of psychosis that derives, at its core, from the experience of psychosis itself. The book's synthesis of clinical and 'peer model' principles will provide readers with a way to understand and navigate potential transference impasses often encountered with purely clinical approaches. In doing so it provides a valuable new framework for practitioners and scholars working in clinical psychology, psychoanalysis, philosophy, critical theory, psychiatry and social work.

Women with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and other Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) have different etiology, mortality, relapse antecedents, clinical presentations, and courses of the disorders than men. This therapist guide addresses the unique problems and treatment needs of women with AUD/SUD and is based on scientific evidence accumulated over 25 years of NIH-funded studies. The book provides detailed guidance for conducting each session, sample dialogue, worksheets, and completed examples for each worksheet, and is designed to be used along with the corresponding client workbook. This cognitive-behavioral, motivation-enhancing guide for therapists can be delivered in inpatient or outpatient settings; designed primarily for group settings, it is also easily adapted for individual use. The program covers 12 weekly sessions to help women to become abstinent, preventing relapse to drinking or drug use, and to generally achieve improvement in quality of life. The therapist guide includes step-by-step instructions for addressing behaviors around drinking and drug use, general coping skills such as problem-solving, assertiveness training, wellness behaviors, and communication training, as well as additional female-specific interventions like social network support and building healthy, supportive relationships. If used in a group format, the therapy harnesses the power of peer support, shared wisdom, and universality of experience to accelerate positive change in desired outcomes. Overcoming alcohol or drug problems is an attainable goal with this effective and comprehensive program.

In this book, the authors Bruce J. Diamond, Amy E. Lear, and Katherine Makarec argue that there is an inner world within all of us that profoundly impacts our lives and that memories, perceptions, tastes, preferences, biases, and beliefs are encoded and expressed on an unaware, largely non-conscious level. Many aspects of our lives and actions are guided and influenced by factors about which we may know very little but which nevertheless alter the quality, substance, and trajectory of our lives, our loves, our likes, and our dislikes. Drawing on novel experimental designs and computer and imaging-based technologies, the authors demonstrate that people can react to faces and places in measurable ways, despite the fact that they may profess to having never seen or visited these faces or places. The authors show that these unaware phenomena are not isolated instances, but rather that they permeate and influence virtually every aspect of our lives.

Seeing and Being Seen: Emerging from a Psychic Retreat examines the themes that surface when considering clinical situations where patients feel stuck and where a failure to develop impedes the progress of analysis.

This book analyses the anxieties and challenges confronted by patients as they begin to emerge from the protection of psychic retreats. Divided into three parts, areas of discussion include:

• embarrassment, shame, and humiliation
• helplessness, power, and dominance
• mourning, melancholia, and the repetition compulsion.

As well as offering fresh ideas, Steiner bases his creative and integrative efforts on previous contributions by psychoanalysts including Freud, Klein, Rosenfeld, and Bion. As such, this book will be of interest to psychoanalysts, clinical psychotherapists, and all those with an interest in the psychoanalytic field.

As many as 5-10 million Americans may suffer from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) yet it remains under-recognized by both mental health professionals and the general public. Tormented by obsessive thoughts associated with physical appearance, and related compulsive behaviors, people with BDD believe their bodies are flawed or even deformed-imperfections typically not noticeable to others. High suicide attempt rates, the pursuit of cosmetic remedies and other factors complicate the clinical picture. Although Scott Granet began showing symptoms of BDD at 19, more than two decades passed before he discovered that his obsessive fear of losing his hair was a sign of a serious psychiatric condition. Written from the perspective of therapist who has lived with and triumphed over BDD, Granet's personal and clinical narrative guides the reader through the process of assessing and treating BDD.

This book offers a detailed road map for overcoming sexual and relationship impasses originating from painful childhood experiences. Large numbers of adults with histories of childhood trauma and neglect suffer persistent relationship and sexual difficulties. Unfortunately, most have failed to receive adequate help with emerging from these deep and complex problems. Coming Home to Passion: Restoring Loving Sexuality in Couples with Histories of Childhood Trauma and Neglect explores the enduring impacts-physiological, psychological, and behavioral-of childhood trauma and neglect. Author Ruth Cohn, drawing on 25 years of experience working with trauma survivors and their partners and families, lays out a practical and actionable course for recovery in clear, accessible language. This book provides direction and hope to those with trauma backgrounds while also serving as a unique resource for professional readers. Integrating in-depth information on attachment and relationship, trauma and neglect, and sexuality, Cohn details a practical, hands-on treatment approach for revitalizing love, health, and passion. Provides a manual of ten sequential, structured activities that can guide readers in their concrete work on relationships and sexuality Illustrates dynamics painfully familiar to readers with numerous stories of real-life case examples A bibliography recommends additional reading as well as references and other resources

Experiential evidence shows that pain is associated with common meanings. These include a meaning of threat or danger, which is experienced as immediately distressing or unpleasant; cognitive meanings, which are focused on the long-term consequences of having chronic pain; and existential meanings such as hopelessness, which are more about the person with chronic pain than the pain itself. This interdisciplinary book - the second in the three-volume Meanings of Pain series edited by Dr Simon van Rysewyk - aims to better understand pain by describing experiences of pain and the meanings these experiences hold for the people living through them. The lived experiences of pain described here involve various types of chronic pain, including spinal pain, labour pain, rheumatic pain, diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, endometriosis-associated pain, and cancer-related pain. Two chapters provide narrative descriptions of pain, recounted and interpreted by people with pain. Language is important to understanding the meaning of pain since it is the primary tool human beings use to manipulate meaning. As discussed in the book, linguistic meaning may hold clues to understanding some pain-related experiences, including the stigmatisation of people with pain, the dynamics of patient-clinician communication, and other issues, such as relationships between pain, public policy and the law, and attempts to develop a taxonomy of pain that is meaningful for patients. Clinical implications are described in each chapter. This book is intended for people with pain, their family members or caregivers, clinicians, researchers, advocates, and policy makers.