Brainfulness: The intuitive guide to the nature and diagnosis of mental illness

by Michael Levin

Most of us take our mental health for granted and don’t give a second thought to why others become ill and what happens when they do. And yet, more than 40 million Americans—18% of us—suffer from psychiatric disorders and these numbers only grow higher when we consider the impact on the families, friends, and society.

But what is the mental illness? Do mood swings mean you are bipolar? Is it normal to check your door locks twice? What about four times? Do the bizarre images and strange thoughts that enter your mind mark the beginning of schizophrenia? And does your wandering mind point to an ADHD diagnosis? This book will help you answer these questions. It will also dispel erroneous beliefs about disorders of the mind.

This book is for those who receive or provide mental health care and for someone who is curious about mental diseases and seeks a cogent explanation of this perplexing subject. Brainfulness is a roadmap of the mental health terrain, a guide through the maze of normal behaviors and psychiatric symptoms, syndromes, diseases, conditions, and labels. You will learn about the old hypotheses and new discoveries, the brain’s mechanics and what happens when its parts malfunction, and the AMPERIC, a diagnostic system that organizes psychiatric disorders into recognizable functional units.

311 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 14, 2018

About the author

Michael Levin is Professor of Philosophy, City College of New York.