The current mainstream way of describing psychological and emotional distress assumes it is the result of medical illnesses that need diagnosing and treating. This book summarises a powerful alternative to psychiatric diagnosis that asks not 'What's wrong with you?' but 'What's happened to you?' The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) was co-produced by a core group of psychologists and service users and launched in 2018, prompting considerable interest in the UK and worldwide. It argues that emotional distress, unusual experiences and many forms of troubled or troubling behaviour are understandable when viewed in the context of a person's life and circumstances, the cultural and social norms we are expected to live up to and the degree to which we are exposed to trauma, abuse, injustice and inequality. The PTMF offers all of us the tools to create new, hopeful narratives about the reasons for our distress that are not based on psychiatric diagnosis and to find ways forward as individuals, families, social groups and whole societies.
Series introduction - Richard Bentall and Pete Sanders, 1. What this book aims to do, 2. The problems with diagnosis and why we need a different approach, 3. Introducing the Power Threat Meaning Framework, 4. 'What has happened to you?' (How is power operating in your life?), 5. 'How did what happened affect you?' (What kind of threats does this pose?), 6. 'What sense did you make of it?' (What is the meaning of these situations and experiences to you?), 7. 'What did you have to do to survive?' (What kinds of threat response are you using?), 8. General patterns in distress, 9. What is your story?, 10. How did we get here? Questioning some basic assumptions, 11. Further implications of the Power Threat Meaning Framework, Further reading and resources, Appendix: General patterns, Plus a one-page Appendix containing the Guided Discussion template?
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