Description
Book SynopsisHealth psychology is an offer of help, an effort to understand how biological, behavioral, and social factors influence health and illness. As one of the fast-growing sub-specialties, it has now outstripped other divisions of psychology in terms of excitement in the public eye. And yet a new occupation was built on somewhat unrealistic, idealized assumptions. The title of this book was therefore chosen to emphasize the fact that an extensive critique of those assumptions is essential. This book proposes arbitrary boundaries for a discourse on health psychology. The array of subjects is based on two major themes: the foundation of health psychology and the range of disorders where psychological knowledge might benefit the sick; and the question of whether or not health psychology has a systematic and pragmatic structure so as to qualify as a profession.
Trade Review"Professor Myslobodsky has written a thoughtful, scholarly, and entertaining book on disease and health. He punctures many popular balloons belonging to both medicine and psychology, thereby exposing the reader to the vast amount of hot air that has been widely promoted as facts. Both medicine and psychology, it turns out, are professions in process, and their intersection is still to be determined." Professor E Fuller Torrey The Stanley Medical Research Institute "The Fallacy of Mother's Wisdom should be required reading for every health psychologist and the text for every health psychology course in the country. In addition to its remarkable scholarship, the book has beautiful artwork and a striking cover picture." Professor Emeritus Irving Maltzman UCLA "This timely and important book critically examines the classic "truths" and "axioms" in psychosomatic medicine and health psychology. Over the last decades, many claims have been made suggesting how serious diseases could be cured by changing mental states , which are flourishing in popular books and TV programs. This book discusses the scientific evidence for such claims, using new techniques, such as functional neuroimaging, where it is possible to provide empirical evidence to back up critical evaluations of the psychosomatic/health psychology axis." Professor Kenneth Hugdahl University of Bergen, Norway "It is an impressive accomplishment ... a delightful read that is at the same time most scholarly in its account of medical history and in its many references to literary works. It is also jam-packed with useful information for the practitioner. Myslobodsky's point of view on the many issues that health psychologists must face with all the new developments in medical science is always refreshing and provocative. The book is fascinating and I learned much from reading it. I recommend it highly." Elliot S Valenstein Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan
Table of ContentsThe Point of Departure: The Pillars of the Health Psychology Edifice; 'Bad Boys' and Prenatal Programming; Between Psychiatry and Medicine: Illness in Search of a Place; The Deadly Trio; Collective Exaggerated Emotions; A Complementary Point of View; Holistic Philosophy and a Recipe for Causative Goulash; If Health Psychology is the Answer, What was the Question?
