The Future of Mental Health: Deconstructing the Mental Disorder Paradigm appears from Transaction Publishers Fall, 2015

Early praise for The Future of Mental Health:

“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. The scope of Maisel’s reflections is equal to the thirty years of domination of the biomedical paradigm in mental health, his creation of a human experience specialist is extraordinary, and I now understand from reading his wonderful book that we must care for people who suffer more with who we are, with our being, than with what we know, given how little we actually know.”

—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. For those of us who have ever wondered if we are ‘normal’ or been concerned about the future for our children, there is much in this book to be heartened by. If you want to navigate life’s bumps more courageously and create meaning and purpose in your living, take a read of this book. You’ll be glad you did.”

—Tim Carey, Head of Research, Centre for Remote Health, Central Australian Health Service; Chair, Regional, Rural, and Remote Advisory Group, Australian Psychological Society

“Eric Maisel’s new book The Future of Mental Health is a stark indictment of the status quo in psychiatry in which people are turned into patients and the human experience is treated as pathology. Maisel recognizes that suffering and distress are normal aspects of the human condition, not disorders to be diagnosed. He urges us to take a hard look at our obsession with treating depression and anxiety with pills, which only mask the underlying issues and make them harder to address. 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 (most recently) The Illusion of Well-Being

“There 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.”

—Shawn Rubin, PsyD, Saybrook University Chair, School of Clinical Psychology, Editor in Chief, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Co-Editor in Chief, University Professors Press

“Over the past century our attempt to help people suffering from emotional pain has taken three roads, talk therapy, chemical intervention, and institutional warehousing. Now we are at a crossroads where the constructs we use need rethinking and where better help than diagnostic labeling and wanton chemical intervening must be provided. Eric Maisel goes a long way toward explaining our current situation and pointing us in new directions in his excellent new book The Future of Mental Health. Highly recommended!”

—Louis Breger, Ph.D., Founding President, Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, author, Psychotherapy: Lives Intersecting and Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision

“The Future of Mental Health argues powerfully that to treat certain human thoughts and emotions as signs of a disorder is not only unscientific – since there is no independent evidence of any underlying disease processes – but also profoundly damaging.  The Future of Mental Health is a highly readable, compelling and challenging book on a topic that affects all of us. Everyone should read it! A wonderful and much needed book.”

— Anne Cooke, Clinical Director, Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK, co-editor Recent Advances in Understanding Mental Illness and Understanding Bipolar Disorder