Mental Illness and the Body

Observation of the body helps psychiatrists to determine the cause and treatment of mental illness. Louise Phillips provides an accessible text that enables readers to develop a fuller understanding of the clinical significance of the body in mental health practice.

Louise Phillips is a lecturer in Mental Health at City University and a mental health nurse. She has practiced for the past 18 years in a variety of settings including elderly care, the voluntary sector and the NHS. Immediately before starting her academic career, she worked for a number of years as a Community Psychiatric Nurse in the King's Cross area of London. In addition to her nursing qualification she has a BA in European Cultural History and completed her PhD on approaches to the body and mental illness at the university of Kent at Canterbury in March 2003.

Preface 1. Introduction 2. Lived Experience 3. Bodily Inscription 4. Women Speaking 5. Unspoken Distress 6. Psychosis 7. The Practitioner's Body 8. The Patient's Body 9. Developing Practice