Abstract

Personality Disorder (PD) is one of the most difficult psychological conditions to classify and treat and in the past literature on the subject has tended to neglect the invaluable viewpoint of sufferers themselves. Drawing on extensive research carried out in conjunction with service users, Heather Castillo seeks to adjust this imbalance and looks at the classification and treatment of PD from the service users' viewpoint. This book emphasises the need for health professionals to reassess their approach to the condition and allows those with PD to effectively define themselves and their illness. With a wide range of case study material and analysis, this book is essential reading for mental health professionals, workers in the voluntary and forensic sectors and service users themselves.
Heather Castillo is the Advocacy Service Manager for Colchester Mind. She has worked for twelve years in Mind Organisations in North East Essex, developing Advocacy for adults with mental health problems.
`This is a good book about personality disorder, which is also a great book about advocacy… Vividly is to convey, in people's own words, what it feels like to have the label "personality disorder", and points us towards a new understanding of both this term and other diagnoses, which includes the personal experience, as well as the theoretical framework of "the helper"… At it's best advocacy has been a vehicle to help articulate the views of people generally not heard. This book is a perfect example of this, and in a time when advocacy is changing, we should cherish Castillo's book as example of a kind of advocacy that may be going out of fashion… Her book is an attempt to redress that failing, and despite the nightmarish descriptions, the overall impression we are left with is hopeful and, yes, emancipatory - partly because Castillo has succeeded in throwing some light into a corner of the world most of us find hard to look at.'
Psychotherapy & Politics International
`It is an exciting and interesting book and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to know about what it is like to live with the diagnosis of personality disorder and what others can do to help. It is a n excellent example of how we can use research to provide a platform for voices from the margins and to help service users use the power that comes from knowing something from the inside out.'
Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal
`If there ever was a book that would turn the conventional, conservative view of personality disorder on its head, this is it. The book is presented in an easily readable form, with a comprehensive background to the subject of personality disorder at start, then the methodology of the study, then the results presented in a meaningful way. The discussion that follows is colourfully illustrated with quotes and examples of service user poetry and creative writing that are often shocking and always moving. This book wisely tells us that we can overcome a difficult disorder by thinking differently, and gives us a way forward. Very welcome in any service that is forward thinking, enlightened and wanting to find new ways to help their service users.'
Journal of Mental Health
`An insight into the trauma behind the behaviour to (hopefully) inform future service development.'
Mental Health Today
`The book looks at the history of personality disorder diagnosis, and the difficulties and limitations in classifying people in this way…The research process and findings are informative and inspirational. The involvement of the researchers in the task contributed to their individual recovery, and the book offers an invaluable contribution to our understanding of personality disorder.'
Community Care