The Writer's Guide to Psychology

Carolyn Kaufman

Description

An accurate and accessible survey of modern psychological theory and practice, this reference offers professional writers practical advice for incorporating psychological elements into their work. With easy-to-understand explanations and definitions, this book is an invaluable resource for any writer wishing to add realistic details to scenes that depict psychologists, mental illnesses and disorders, and psychotherapeutic treatments. Designed around the needs of professional fiction and nonfiction writers, this is an easy-to-use resource that includes historical and modern psychological treatments and terms and refutes popularly held misconceptions.

Informations

• Publié par: Linden Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781610350150
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Advance praise for The Writer’s Guide to Psychology

“Thoughtful, scholarly, comprehensive, and a boon to writers aiming for accuracy when depicting the world of abnormal psychology and clinical treatment.”
—Jonathan Kellerman , psychologist and author of the best-selling Alex Delaware mystery novels

“I wish Carolyn Kaufman had written The Writer’s Guide to Psychology years ago! Every writer who even thinks about creating or explaining a character with a psychological disorder should have a copy on their desk, right next to their dictionary and thesaurus. A well-written, easy-to-read guide to understanding the most complicated of psychological disorders that’s sure to help writers abandon the stereotypes and develop realistic characters.”
—Jilliane Hoffman , former felony prosecutor with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and best-selling author of Retribution , Last Witness , Plea of Insanity , and Pretty Little Things

“As a psychologist, a novelist, and a reader, nothing stops me reading faster than flat characters, phony fictional shrinks, and false diagnoses. Fiction writers can get all the help they need with these problems and more in Carolyn Kaufman’s excellent reference, The Writer’s Guide to Psychology .”
—Dr. Roberta Isleib, clinical psychologist and author of Deadly Advice , Preaching to the Corpse , and Asking for Murder

The Writer’s Guide to Psychology Copyright © 2010 by Carolyn Kaufman. All rights reserved.
Published by Quill Driver Books an imprint of Linden Publishing 2006 South Mary, Fresno, California 93721 559-233-6633 / 800-345-4447 QuillDriverBooks.com
Quill Driver Books and Colophon are trademarks of Linden Publishing, Inc.
ISBN 978-1-884995-68-2
135798642
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kaufman, Carolyn.    The writer’s guide to psychology : how to write accurately about psychological disorders, clinical treatment, and human behavior / by Carolyn Kaufman.       p. cm.     Includes bibliographical references and index.     ISBN 978-1-884995-68-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)     1.Psychology, Pathological. 2.Psychotherapy. 3.Psychology, Pathological in literature. 4.Psychotherapy in literature. 5.Fiction--Technique.I. Title.     RC454.4.K42 2010     616.89--dc22
2010039077
Acknowledgments
M any thanks go to Jenifer Takats, MD, not only for connecting me with several other psychiatric professionals, but also for so generously sharing her time and expertise on medications. Thank you also to Trupti Patel, MD, who gave me a fantastic inside scoop on ECT and VNS. Thanks to Sharon Hawk-Carpenter, RN, BSN, MSA and John Tilley, PsyD, for answering oodles of questions and showing me around private and state-run psychiatric wards, respectively. David Tom, PhD was also kind enough to answer questions on institutionalization, and to read the entire manuscript in search of errors.
Thank you to my beta readers, the first four of whom have been my partners in crime on the QueryTracker Blog ( querytracker.blogspot.com )—Suzette Saxton, Mary Lindsey, Heather Dyer, MD; and Patrick McDonald. And Annie Louden’s sharp editorial eye is very much to thank for the polish on the manuscript I initially turned in to the publisher.
Thank you to my agent, Kate Epstein, and to Quill Driver founder Steve Mettee, both of whom believed in this project in the midst of a brutal economy. Also at Quill Driver, editor Kent “we need more examples” Sorsky helped to make the book much stronger, and both he and publicist Jaguar Bennett provided guidance and assistance as I worked on book-support projects like the website, WritersGuidetoPsychology.com .
Thanks to Lori Moomaw, who helped keep me sane through this process.
And a special thanks to Sue Kaufman, who not only believed in this project from Day 1, but also provided support and assistance throughout the process of conceptualizing, developing, and writing this book.
Finally, thanks to my family and friends, as well as to my readers who have become advocates, cheerleaders, and fans along the way. I couldn’t have done it without you.
For my mom, Sue Kaufman, and my dad, Dennis Kaufman, who have always supported and encouraged my dreams—including this one.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Common Myths and Mistakes A Look at Fictional Portrayals of Psychological Problems, Professionals, and Treatments
Chapter 2: Why People Do What They Do Learning to Think Like a Shrink
Chapter 3: The Therapist’s Profession Degrees, Training, and Ethics
Chapter 4: Behind Closed Doors How Real Therapy Sessions Work
Chapter 5: Disorders and Diagnosis When Does a Problem Become a Disorder?
Chapter 6: The Disorders, Part I Mood, Anxiety, and Psychotic Disorders
Chapter 7: The Disorders, Part II Childhood Disorders, Dementia, and Eating Disorders
Chapter 8: The Disorders, Part III Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Dissociation
Chapter 9: The Disorders, Part IV Personality Disorders
Chapter 10: Psychopaths and Villains Crossing the Line
Chapter 11: Physical and Biological Interventions Medications, Electroshock, and One Really Horrible Idea
Chapter 12: Emergencies in Psychotherapy Suicidality, Homicidality, and Hospitalization
Conclusion
Glossary
Note About the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
Bibliography
Index
Foreword
E very writer—be he or she a novelist, journalist or screenwriter—has at one time or another attempted to create, explain or define in their work a complicated character who is afflicted with mental illness. We hear and see the slang medical terminology—”OCD,” “manic,” “schizo,” “psycho,” “PTSD”—casually tossed about in conversations, literature, movies, and on TV everyday. Sometimes the words are used interchangeably; oftentimes they are used incorrectly, but their frequent overuse has led many writers to believe they understand a disease or affliction when they really don’t. Unfortunately, most writers aren’t psychiatrists and very few have earned a doctorate in psychology. Save for a few who might’ve spent some time in a psych ward or on a therapist’s couch, most writers have had no interaction with the schizophrenics, sociopaths, manic-depressives (aka bi-polarites), borderlines, post-traumatically-stressed-out, or otherwise mentally ill characters we yearn to write about. Without a clinical background or field experience, most writers have thus relied on the same old misinformed stereotypes we’ve heard or seen through the years to create characters that are inaccurate, or in some cases, actually atypical of an individual suffering from a particular psychological disorder.
I’d love to say, “If you need a psych degree to truly understand the nuances of a particular mental illness, then but for psychiatrists and those with a doctorate on their walls, who’s the wiser if you rely on outdated or misinformed stereotypes?”—but it doesn’t work that way. All writers worth their salt know that once a reader or a filmgoer catches on that an author or screenwriter hasn’t done their homework, they lose credibility with that audience. From there, it’s all downhill. But it’s not just the misuse of slang terminology that immediately identifies you, the writer, as a person who didn’t do his or her character research. It can be the situations you put your character in, how you make your character speak, what she looks like, how she dresses, what career choices she’s made, and the type of men she dates. While mental illness is unique in how it may affect an individual, each diagnosis has certain defining symptoms that will shape a character’s thought processes and how that character interacts with others.
I pen legal thrillers, and so the characters that I try to create, define or explain are usually diabolical psychopathic killers. As a former Miami prosecutor, I have some real life experience to help guide me in the killer department, but I’m no Sigmund Freud or Jennifer Melfi when it comes to understanding why my nasty characters do what they do. When it came time to tackle a different psychological disorder in my third thriller, Plea of Insanity, I actually had to read whole treatises on schizophrenia just so I could create an accurate depiction of a schizophrenic character. Of course, before digesting such exciting reads as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Version IV (DSM-IV) and Surviving Schizophrenia, I first scoured the shelves of bookstores and libraries alike in search of an easy-to-understand guide to Psych 101. Unfortunately for me, there was nothing.
Until now.
I wish Carolyn Kaufman had written The Writer’s Guide to Psychology a few years ago. She not only defines the most complicated of mental illnesses in an easy-to-understand manner, but she actually thinks like a writer, offering her invaluable insight as a seasoned clinician in character development. She debunks the myths and dismantles the stereotypes, gives an insider’s view as to what really happens when a client lies down on that proverbial therapy couch (that is most likely a therapy chair nowadays), and in the end even helps you medicate your crazed character properly. She draws upon the past mistakes of other writers to provide readers with cautionary tales of what not to do and lauds the ones who hit a Hannibal Lector home run in an effort to better illustrate how a writer can get it right.
And that’s what it really comes down to in the end—getting it right. Because even in works of fiction, the re