David Smail

I want to draw everyone's attention to the work of my friend David Smail.... he died just recently: on 3rd August 2014... I went to his funeral just before coming to Leuven.

His books are:

• Illusion and Reality - The Meaning of Anxiety. [1984] Constable, 1997 (revised). ISBN 978-0-460-02278-1
• Taking Care - An Alternative to Therapy. [1987] Constable, 1998. ISBN 978-0-09-477420-9
• The Origins of Unhappiness - A New Understanding of Personal Distress. [1993] Constable, 1999 (revised). ISBN 978-0-09-479340-8
• How to Survive Without Psychotherapy. [1996] Constable, 1998 (revised). ISBN 978-0-09-478480-2
• The Nature of Unhappiness. Robinson, 2001. ISBN 1-84119-350-X
• Why Therapy Doesn't Work. Robinson, 2001. ISBN 978-1-84119-350-2
• Power, Interest and Psychology - Elements of a Social Materialist Understanding of Distress. PCCS Books, 2005. ISBN 978-1-898059-71-4

And his website is: http://www.davidsmail.info/... 

Basically, his view of "psychological distress" is :"Hardly any of the 'symptoms' of psychological distress may correctly be seen as medical matters. The so-called psychiatric 'disorders' are nothing to do with faulty biology, nor indeed are they the outcome of individual moral weakness or other personal failing. They are the creation of the social world in which we live, and that world is structured by power."

The manifesto of the Midland Group he formed can be found on:  http://www.midpsy.org/draft_manifesto.htm

Love to all, john