Ý Nghĩa Của Sự Điên Loạn - Cách nhận diện nguồn cơn và xử lý những nỗi đau tinh thần sâu trong bạn

by Neel Burton, Đặng Gia Cát Lượng (Translator)

“Ý nghĩa của sự điên loạn” - Nhìn nhận “rối loạn tâm thần” trong chính bản chất của chúng, là cách bộc lộ - và đôi khi là khẳng định bản chất sâu thẳm nhất của con người chúng ta.

Bạn đã bao giờ tự hỏi, nỗi đau tinh thần từ đâu mà có? Triệu chứng nào cho thấy bạn đang hoàn toàn bình thường hay có vấn đề về tinh thần? Liệu chúng ta có thể sống mạnh khỏe, hạnh phúc nếu mang trong mình những nỗi đau đó hay không?

Xã hội phát triển càng nhanh thì sức khỏe tâm thần của con người càng cần nhận được nhiều sự quan tâm và suy ngẫm một cách đúng đắn - khoa học. Với mục tiêu xuyên suốt là thông qua các chứng rối loạn để khám phá bản chất và tình trạng tinh thần của mỗi người, “Ý nghĩa của sự điên loạn” này là một cẩm nang NHẬN DIỆN và XỬ LÝ nỗi đau tinh thần có thể đồng hành cùng bạn trên hành trình khám phá và tự chữa lành trong mình.

Cuốn sách được Neel Burton viết rất chặt chẽ với 6 chương tưởng chừng như không có sự liên quan, nhưng thực tế lại có hàm ý cực kỳ logic trong đó: năm chương đầu tiên, chúng ta cùng tác giả bàn luận về những chứng rối loạn tâm thần thường gặp (rối loạn nhân cách, tâm thần phân liệt, trầm cảm, rối loạn lưỡng cực, rối loạn lo âu), và chương thứ sáu, cũng là chương cuối cùng, nói về tự tử và hành vi tự hại.

Bằng tri thức tuyệt vời và kinh nghiệm thực tế của mình, Neel Burton đã dẫn dắt và giúp người đọc hiểu đầy đủ về các rối loạn tâm thần theo sự phát triển từ y học nguyên thủy đến y học hiện đại, thông qua các phân tích khách quan và không thiên kiến – với lập luận và dẫn chứng cụ thể, ví dụ minh họa sinh động. Cuốn sách mang đến những góc nhìn mới khi trao đổi về các vấn đề không mới, từ đó trở nên gần gũi hơn với bạn đọc phổ thông.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Science, Psychiatry, Philosophy, Amazon

Paperback

First published October 20, 2008

About the author

Dr Neel Burton is a psychiatrist, philosopher, and wine-lover who lives and teaches in Oxford, England. He is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College in the University of Oxford, and the winner of several book prizes including, the feather in his cap, a Best in the World Gourmand Award. His work features regularly in the likes of Aeon and Psychology Today and has been translated into several languages. When he is not reading or writing, or imbibing, he enjoys cooking, gardening, skiing, learning languages, visiting museums and gardens, and travelling, especially to wine regions.

His books include:

- The Meaning of Myth (Ancient Wisdom 1)
- Stoic Stories (Ancient Wisdom 2)
- The Meaning of Madness (Ataraxia 1)
- Hide and Seek: The Psychology of Self-Deception (Ataraxia 2)
- Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions (Ataraxia 3)
- For Better for Worse: Essays on Sex, Love, Marriage, and More (Ataraxia 4)
- Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking (Ataraxia 5)
- The Art of Failure: The Anti Self-Help Guide (Ataraxia 6)
- Growing from Depression
- The Secret to Everything: How to Live More and Suffer Less, and
- The Concise Guide to Wine and Blind Tasting

www.neelburton.com

Reviews

[Auntie Terror · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars [rtc]

[Richard Derus]

I owe my review of this fascinating book *guilty eyes* but don't let my dilatory review-offering stop you from hopping on this 99¢ Kindle deal: https://smile.amazon.com/Meaning-Madn...

You'll be glad you did, even if you're only mildly interested in mental-health topics.

[Book Shark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Meaning of Madness by Neel Burton

"The Meaning of Madness" is about educating the public on mental disorders through open debates and getting people interested in this important and interesting topic. The book addresses common mental disorders: personality disorders, schizophrenia, depression, manic-depressive illness, and anxiety disorders and even the topic of suicide. Psychiatrist, philosopher, writer, and blogger for Psychology Today, Dr. Neel Burton has written an accessible and intelligible book on mental disorders. This interesting 211-page book is composed of the following six chapters: 1. Personality, identity, and agency, 2. Schizophrenia, the price for being human, 3. Depression, the curse of the strong, 4. Manic-depressive illness, that fine madness, 5. Anxiety, freedom, and death and 6. Suicide.

Positives:
1. Accessible and generally well-written book that deals with the important issue of mental disorders.
2. A fascinating and commonly misunderstood topic.
3. The author does a wonderful job of defining new terms.
4. Good use of tables and diagrams.
5. The concept of personality the notion of "free will".
6. Classification of personality disorders and how they differ from mental illnesses. Interesting tidbits and introduces readers to a number of disorders. As an example, anankastic personality disorder which is characterized by excessive preoccupation with details, rules, lists, or schedules; and perfectionism so extreme that it prevents a task from being completed.
7. The concept of groupthink. I wished that was pursued in more detail.
8. Putting schizophrenia in perspective. The history of it. Symptoms of schizophrenia. What it is and what it is not. The drugs created to address it.
9. Icons of science and art who were afflicted with some of these illnesses and/or disorders.
10. Symptoms of depression. Degrees of depression. Treatments. Interesting look geographical variations in the prevalence of depression.
11. Interesting subtopic of perceptions of a remedy's potency.
12. Manic-depressive illness or bipolar disorder in perspective. The symptoms of mania. Treatments.
13. A look into anxiety, the causes and treatments. Phobias. What agoraphobia truly is versus what it is perceived to be.
14. Suicide, the main causes. Debunking some myths.
15. A little philosophy for good measure, "God cannot commit suicide even if he wishes, but man can do so at any time he chooses." Thought-provoking, is it not?
16. The epilogue summarizes the book effectively.
Negatives:
1. An interesting book overall but it felt uneven and lacked the production quality of other books of its ilk.
2. Very few footnotes and no formal bibliography.
3. A glossary of terms would have been very helpful.
4. The writing lacks panache, it's accessible but it is often dry.
5. Repetitive. It may have a lot to do with the fact that neuroscience and other fields are in their infancy thus limiting the knowledge we have on these mental disorders. The lack of scientific validity as the author denotes is a problem for all psychiatric disorders.
6. I wished the author would have been clearer on what the current scientific consensus is among the subject matter experts on many of the topics discussed. As an example, a reference table that showed all the mental illnesses, causes and best form of treatment according to the scientific consensus.
7. So many fascinating topics were basically just mentioned but were bound to incite curiosity. Personally, I am very interested in the concept of groupthink and would have liked a link or a book recommendation.

In summary, mental disorders is a fascinating and important topic. The book is a good introduction to mental disorders though I felt it was a bit uneven and many times left me with more questions than answers. That being said, it does a good job of making such complex and often times confusing topics accessible to the public. I give it 3.5 stars but will lean 4 because of the fascinating nature of the topic.

Further suggestions: "Human" and "Who's In Charge" by Michael S. Gazzaniga, "The Tell-Tale Brain" by V.S. Ramachandran, "Hardwired Behavior" by Laurence Tancredi, "The Belief Instinct" by Jesse Bering, "Subliminal" by Leonard Mlodinow, "Why People Believe Weird Things" and "The Believing Brain" by Michael Shermer, "The Blank Slate" by Steven Pinker, "SuperSense" by Bruce M. Hood, "Paranormality" by Richard Wiseman, "The Myth of Free Will" by Cris Evatt, "God Soul Mind Brain" by Michael S.A. Graziano, and "The Brain and Meaning of Life" by Paul Thagard.

[Carson hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

(This "review" is for my purposes only).

Mixed feelings on this one. I wasn't really happy with what looked like a cut & paste job to me, but I did find the information interesting. I do believe that some of it was not exactly accurate though, especially the schizophrenia/cannabis connection.

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and thought-provoking

Burton's tour of the complexity of mental health is critical of modern psychiatric treatment without blooming into full blown anti-psychiatry. Burton does tie this into pre- modern philosophy into his narrative in an interesting way. That said, Burton is still rare casual in its style for good and ill.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a general introduction to the issues of mental disorders, I could recommend this book.
At 200 small pages, it cannot but remain superficial on all topics (schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, suicide, ...). I have read several books on these topics and therefore it did not offer any new insights. So don't expect any new theory about the meaning of madness in this book. It's a general overview of the problems concerning mental disorders and that's all it is.

However what bothers me enormously is that there is no reading list at the end of the book! There are many very interesting authors mentioned in this book (Thomas Nagel, Kay Redfield Jamison, William Styron, etc...), so I expected an extensive list of more specialized works.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting, if a bit unstructured, survey of mental illness and philosophy. While I appreciated the author's intertwining of the two, the structure of the book was difficult at times.

Specifically, the author's choice of setting apart each paragraph as a stand-alone entity, often with little or no transition between disparate thoughts or subjects, was frequently jarring and made getting into the 'flow' of the text nearly impossible. Also, there were digressions within each chapter that I did not understand - for instance, why we are given a bit of a lengthy biography on Freud partway through the chapter on Anxiety, and then immediately (no transition!) thrust into Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Editorial choices such as these prevented me from fully enjoying the text.

[Michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Meaning of Madness opens up the topic of mental dieases. The author does a great work with asking quesions and providing answers from both points of view. The book is essay-like with lots of history on mental diseases and a bit more philisophical than I expected, but it was an interesting read anyway. My only issue is that I would expect it to be more explanatory in terms of biolology and psychology as the short description about the book seemed to show exactly that, rather than philosophical questions. That being said the author did provide biological and psychological background along with some evolutionary explanations and dedfinitely provided some topics for a debate which was his aim.

[Abdulmalik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple and easy to read, It’s more like a general introduction to mental illnesses.

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how this book explores our understanding of mental illness and the title does not fully do it justice because the author delves into years of history and interventions and culture and how all these shape what we mistakenly call as madness.
I loved more so the bit on Schizophrenia and the reference on Dr, Jekyll and Hyde and how literature also contributed to such a misunderstanding of the state of mind. It s an eye-opener and anyone who reads this will not think of mental illness and disorders the same.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really difficult to get into the book. Seems to make assumptions of causation from correlation. Also seems to be some copy and paste style stuff. Some typos. Found it a pedantic mix. Not my type of book. Gave up after 28%.

[Céline · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, it's such a heavy lecture that you really need to be in the right state of mind to correctly comprend every aspect of it. Because at some point you are starting by psychoanalysing yourself and seeing every aspect of yourself that may be wrong.
It's clearly not a book for a depressive person.

I really liked that the book is about educating the public on mental disorders through open debates. I like that they are diagrams, drawings, tables such as theophrastus' 30 character types (page 17), DSM-IV classification of personality disorders (page 19), symptoms of schizophrenia (page 49), Delusional themes in schizophrenia (page 50-51), Four types of operant conditioning (page 95), etc.

I was chocked to discover that a 2005 study by Board and Fritzon have found that histrionic, narcissistic, and anankastic personality disorders are more common in high-lever executives than in mentally disordered criminal offenders at the high security Broadmoor Hospital (page 27).

Here the definition of a psychopath (page 28) by psychologist Robert Hare: "... social predators who charm, manipulate and ruthlessly plow their way through life... Completely lacking in conscience and feeling for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret."

You can find the 5 criteria for schizophrenia at page 68 and ADHD is mentioned at page 111.

He mentioned one of my book wish list at page 82, "One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest".

I didn't know that Beatrice from the Divine Comedy means happiness in Latin.

In short, rather than being in any way helpful, medical-type labels actually make people worse, by perpetuating their problems, by impeding psychiatric research, and by fostering false epidemics." (page 113).

Furthermore, most creative bipolar sufferers cannot create when depressed, but instead use their depression as a source of inspiration for their next piece of work; nor can they create when manic or psychotic because their concentration is too poor and their thinking too disorganized to produce anything substantial or coherent (page 128).

There is a beautiful letter on depression by Prof Jamison at page 132.

I cannot believe that suicide bid can be punished under the law of some countries (page 168).

As the last chapter, death is a beautiful deliverance.

Some nice quotes:
- p. 39: "If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia." (Thomas Szasz)
- p. 64: "Psychosis' is a general term for a mental state involving a loss of contact with reality, as manifested by delusions, hallucinations, or both".
- p. 72: "There are fictions when the society supports you, there are fictions where nobody supports you. That is the difference between a sane and insane person; a sane person is one whose fiction is supported by the society. He has manipulated the society to support his fiction. An insane man is one whose fiction is supported by nobody; he is alone so you have to put him in the madhouse."
- p. 106: "Happiness is good for the body, but it is grief which develops the strengths of the mind." (Marcel Proust)
- p. 109: "But if a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane companions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman." (Plato)
- p. 130: "If my devils were to leave me, I am afraid my angels will take flight as well." (Rainer Maria Rilke)


Bonsoir.

[Jamie Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helping to Bring Understanding to Mental Disorders

Having read several books by Dr. Neel Burton, I found myself pleasantly surprised reading this book about mental disorders. While I certainly enjoyed the mentally rigorous challenge of his previous books, I like Heaven and Hell and Hyper Sanity, I appreciated his down-to-earth approach while explaining five different types of mental disorders and suicide. I am a medical/surgical RN, and many of my patients have had mental disorders; yes, even people with mental illness come into the hospital with physical ailments! I know the general public has a certain fear of mental disorders, especially scary sounding ones like schizophrenia. My experience as a nurse has taught me that mental illness is nothing to be feared; we simply need to understand it better and take the proper supportive role in the lives of our loved ones (if afflicted), just as we would do with those suffering from cancer or chronic physical diseases. I think this book fills the bill in that respect. Dr. Burton has given the context to these disorders that he looks at in this book, diving into medical and philosophical backgrounds as well as looking at the disorders directly, including symptoms and treatments. It is eminently readable and accessible, and frankly, I found it incredibly fascinating. I felt that much what he said mirrors what I have seen as a nurse. I'm happy, actually, that he has put this book out there to help take away what can be a frightening mystique around mental disorders. If any of my patients have the disorders talked about in the book (personality, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and bipolar), I will have a resource that I can share with patients' families and friends. Thanks, Dr. Burton, before lifting the lid, so to speak, about mental illness in such an approachable way.

I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com

[Jerry Walch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of The Meaning of Madness: 2nd Edition as an advanced reading copy from Neel Burton. I had read the first edition of this book a year ago and was impressed by how Burton had made a technical subject so understandable to the lay reader. I was expecting all the jargon that I had to struggle with back in the days when I was a university student taking a course in abnormal psychology as an elective. A strange elective for a student whose major was electrical engineering Much to my surprise, Burton covered much of the same material but did it in using language that any literate person could understand.

The 2nd edition of the book is even better than the 1st, which I didn’t think was even possible. The vast majority of the text is the same but the examples Dr. Burton uses to explain and illustrate such esoterica are all been updated in a way that we can identify with them as being inline with the 21st century that we are living in. If you are a lifelong learner and An autodidact, this is a book that you must read today and then keep in your library to refer back to when your have questions about a particular mental disorder.

On a scale of 1 to 10, this book easily rates a 20. This book is a must read if you truly want to understand all the people you interact with.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Recommendation
Where was this book when I needed it? It offers neat detailed info on various mental illnesses that a layman can understand. I have dealt with the mentally ill, not only in my own family, but for a very long time now on my job. I't's interesting to read about the various individuals who suffered from mental illness and their treatment. I was surprised Nijinsky suffered from schizophrenia. It's so weird that what we lock people up for in Western society, if actually venerated in more traditional societies.
I've known a few folks in my life who suffer from depression; a couple even succeeded in suicide. I never understood it when I was younger, and still don't entirely.
I have noticed that nothing has really changed in treating mental illness, I'm inclined to agree with Neel Burtons's assessment of treatment. The stigma of mental disorder does need to be erased and it needs to be accepted as part of the human conditon.
It's a pretty straight forward read and insightful, with lots of solid research. It's a short, but interesting read.

I received a Kindle arc from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

[Eduard Barbu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a laymen introduction to personality disorders like schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder. For me, the book was a great information source and allowed me to better understand the controversies around the personality disorders. For certain individuals (very few though) the mental disorders were the source of inspiration but for most people and their relatives, they are an ordeal. I was surprised to learn that 38.7 percents of the population in Germany, Italy, and the UK have experienced hallucinations. Like most of you, I have met "strange" people in my life. A recurring type are those who have an excessive preoccupation with details, rules, and lists. According to Burton, they might suffer from Anankastic Personality Disorder. Then I met religious preachers that act like the people affected by mania. Furthermore, I met people that believe they have a divine mission ot that they are the chosen ones or that they are persecuted by obscure forces or the state. Read this short book and you will see in a different light various encounters in your life.

[Mikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a long-time interest in all things psychological and anthropological, and having read numerous books on these areas since my teaching days, it was great to find a succinct summary in a very readable book which could be understood by anyone who doesn't have a background in therapy or mind medicine. I even gained fresh understanding of some of the conditions which afflict the human mind and how they affect people in their daily lives. Recommend this if you have anybody in your family who suffers from a mental illness or disorder. It will help you understand what they're going through, and how best you can help them. Also included is some information on narcissism and other so-called anti-social disorders or aberrations. One of the best sections is the last one on what gives value to one's life, and how one views death (or avoids viewing it) and how that determines the lifestyle and activities of people with mental illnesses or disorders. Worth the read.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I realised today it's the fourth book of Neel Burton's I've read. This one, Psychology of Emotions and Hypersanity (books 1, 3 and 5 but read in reverse order) and The Meaning of Myth. As with the others I really enjoyed it. I love the writing style and how there is plenty of information to intrigue the reader and to learn from, without it becoming too heavy and overwhelming. I will read all of the books in the series based on these three. The books have urged me to think much more deeply about things. Take in pleasure and joy in my surroundings, and handle disappointment and frustration in a different way. Not a self help book, but the contents have helped me a great deal. I have also found that I am sharing so much of the knowledge I have taken from this book, which is a great thing.

[Saba · Rating 4 out of 5]

وقتی با خداوند حرف می‌زنید، در حال دعا کردن هستید. وقتی خداوند با شما حرف می‌زند، مبتلا به اسکیزوفرنی هستید. -توماس ساس

این کتاب برای کسی مثل من که عاشق روان‌شناسی و مطالب مرتبط با اون هست ولی دانش تخصصی راجع ‌بهش نداره مثل کتاب الفبای روان‌شناسی می‌مونه.
من که عاشقش شدم!
-سخت‌خوان نیست.
-اصطلاحات پزشکی به همراه توضیح آورده شده.
-و توی کتاب از نویسندگان،شاعران و هنرمندان بزرگ یاد شده و همینطور به آثار جالبی هم اشاره شده(خودم صفحه‌اول کتاب اسم چندتا فیلم و کتابی که گفته بود رو نوشتم تا بعدا برم ببینم یا بخونم.)
ترجمه‌‌ش هم عالی بود!(نشر خوب،مترجم: سهرورد زرشکیان)

امتیازم به کتاب:
4.5/5⭐️

[Nu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sách hay như cái bìa vậy: đầy đủ và đẹp.

Văn phong tiểu thuyết để nói về tâm lý trị liệu nên đúng gu mình thì mình thấy hay. Câu chữ mượt mà và nội dung còn khoa học, bác sĩ tâm thần mà viết hay vượt dự kiến. Bản tiếng Việt, dịch giả đã làm việc quá tốt rồi.
neelburton.com mình định đọc đủ 3 cuốn trong bộ 6 cuốn Ataraxia này, hên sao lại chọn đúng cuốn này mở màn. Sách mỏng dễ cầm dễ mang khắp nơi nhưng đọc lâu thật sự, đọc xong 1 lần thì tự nghĩ là mới hiểu được cỡ 80%. Để xong 3 quyển, chắc sẽ marathon lại một lượt cho nó rối não.

[Melinda Polet · Rating 5 out of 5]

revolutionary

Need Burton is a compassionate genius. As a diagnosed bipolar 1 I found encouraging hypothesis and groundbreaking insights. I feel I have a friend here, not just a cold and swift doctor who is used to just diagnosing patients. Neel is a great writer and anyone who has been diagnosed will find this most useful and informative. Along the lines of Peter Breggins work. Bravo!

[Cassandra Brenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendously Thought Provoking

This is the kind of book that will stay with you and have you arguing with yourself (and maybe others?). The revolutionary ideas it puts forth are neither touted as right or wrong, but simply recorded from excellent minds for one to think about and question what we actually believe.

[Clive Lillie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, broad view and debate if the common concepts of psychiatry and mental disorder. Presents historical explanations, be they from Roman times to recent developments , right up to insightful debate around contentious areas. Some areas questioned are established with entrenched treatment models supporting them, yet the author questions their validity.

[David Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

A smart little introduction to behaviour disorders like bipolar, schizophrenia and suicide. The origins and treatment histories are discussed as well as a host of statistical analysis common to each disorder. No game changing theories, just solid foundational research.

[Sandeep Gautam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book that summarises in easy to understand language anxiety, depressive, schizophrenic and bipolar conditions ....not academic in nature but good in rigour and much required reading fir anyone interested in the human condition.

[Karen Bendzus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting definitions and history of mental illness

[collie 🌻 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to all different aspects of psychology as well as amazing break downs of complex philosophical questions related to one's self and mental illness.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at madness and a brief history of the variety of illnesses discussed in the book. A truly enlightening read.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating in its exploration of mental illness not just as a pathological disorder but as a genuine and valid human experience. But not as good as Hide & Seek.

[Michael Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

reminds me of my childhood fr ‼️🥰