Book Reviews on this Blog…..

 

 

Receiving a novel to review this morning reminded me that I should probably comment on that process.  I am very grateful to any authors, editors, or publishers who send papers, books, and book chapters my way.  I have a rigorous reading schedule – especially post-retirement.  Scientific papers are my top priority and I generally read 4 or 5 a day.  That number can go way up if I am working on a specific blog post that requires it.

I rarely read fiction but it all depends on what I am focused on.  For example, the question of suffering came up and I am fortunate to have brilliant friends who are not averse to considering these questions.  One of them sent me Sylvain Tesson’s The Consolations of the Forest – Alone In A Cabin on the Siberian Taiga.  I am halfway through that at this point. I have also read technical texts on rhetoric, philosophy, pollical science, anthropology, and history all in support of the blog.  I consider basic science texts like the medical school courses to all be relevant and will even reach back to my undergrad biology and chemistry majors for reading material. 

My preferred reading is what I consider to be detailed and hopefully innovative work in psychiatry.  To that end I would really like to see the following:

1:  A detailed text on the history of psychiatry.  Every current text that I have seen has major deficiencies.

2:  A detailed text on the evolution of psychiatric hypotheses about mental illnesses and why they never seem to be resolved.  The closest I have come to some answer to that question is from the work of theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder and the idea that there are many mathematical hypotheses about the creation of the universe that seem sound but there are no observations available that can prove or disprove them.  She used the term borrowed from a colleague – ascientific to describe that phenomenon.  I think it is a much more accurate term than unscientific. 

3:  A detailed text on the information exchange between psychiatrists and patients. We talk and teach a lot about interviewing techniques but never address the details like: Is there an absolute minimum or maximum? And how can it be determined?

4:  A detailed text on biological complexity in medicine and psychiatry. Our literature is full of references to heterogeneity and suggestions about how to deal with it.  There is very little commentary about how this originates in the biological complexity of living organisms.  We study it from the basic science side but there is no consolidation with what we observe clinically.  At that point it becomes more of a political argument with suggestions that it needs to be controlled in some way or that there are better measures for it.

5:  A definitive text on clinical trials in psychiatry.  If you pick up texts on clinical trials in medicine you will rarely see a reference to psychiatry. I can read any number of clinical trials in the field and show how deficiencies or practicalities may have affected the results.  Psychiatry probably has more meta-analysis of clinical trials than any other specialty and yet the data has more deficiencies.

6:  The only philosophy that really interests me is Van Fraassen's work on empirically adequate models and how that applies to medicine and psychiatry.  It seems fairly clear to me that this is the way we are taught in college, medical school, and residency and yet there is surprisingly little commentary about it. Instead we see elaborate philosophical theories about psychiatry that typically illustrate that the author(s) either knows very little about psychiatrists or how they are trained or they have an entirely different agenda and need to attack the field to advance it.  

7:  Clinical trials with small effects do not interest me.  The same is true for meta-analyses of those trials and pilot studies.  I am much more interested in innovative analyses of that data or innovative designs.  I am interested in the gamut of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities as well as preclinical and basic science studies.  We are in need of better clinical trials technology and have been for at least 20 years. 

These are just a few of the priorities that I think about daily.  And I would happily read those texts or book chapters and review them.  In fact, if anyone at the American Psychiatric Press or Mayo Clinic reads this blog, I am looking forward to Keith Rasmussen’s Ketamine – The Story of Modern Psychiatry’s Most Fascinating Molecule especially the chapter Recreational Use of Ketamine: The World Discovers the K-Hole. Send me a copy and I will read and review it.

A few considerations for anyone interested.  My writing style is too dense at times and people editing my writing often suggest fewer words.  I must admit editing helps greatly. Unfortunately, I don’t have an editor apart from what happens in the word processor.  So you might have to deal with that in the final product. My preferred format is PDF, largely because I have no space left for books.  The picture above is a random half shelf sample from my library.  I have 36 full shelves and 16 half shelves in the room where I am typing this as well as an additional storage room in my basement full of books.  I can guarantee that no one else will see any PDF sent my way and have successfully restricted access to thousands of papers and drafts sent to me over the years.   

The content of this blog is open access and reusable.  According to the CC licensing it just requires crediting and referencing me. I do not make any money on this blog and there are never any charges. Any book or chapter review done could be copied and pasted to any online site and I would be happy to post it on Amazon myself.

I am currently the co-editor of a small newsletter and do not want any additional editorial work.  I also do not seek any peer review positions for journals largely because that experience for me has not been a good one.

Consider this post a hopeful clarification. If you are thinking about sending me the final version of a book, book chapter, or paper and need additional information – feel free to email me with questions before sending anything.

 

George Dawson, MD, DFAPA