Mental
Automatisms, A conceptual journey into Psychosis is an original 485 page
book that includes a complete review of the basic neurological theories
of psychosis from the early nineteenth century to present day. It also introduces
the notion of Mental Automatism, considered the best theory of psychosis
to date. It was brought forth by one of the prominent French psychiatrist
Gatian de Clerambault (1872-1934, Clerambault's Syndrome, Erotomania).
The theory of automatism is a
comprehensive symptomatic approach which focuses essentially on the symptoms
of psychosis and their possible neural substrate. Clerambault established
a catalogue of psychotic symptoms ranging from the most subtle to the most
obvious.
Dr. Hriso translated Clerambault's
work from French to English and has completed Clerambault's catalogue of
psychotic symptoms, their description and ways to elicit them in a practical
clinical setting. Each section of this work can be read independently. The
first section is an educational historical review on psychosis. The second
section comprises the French to English translation of Clerambault's articles
on automatisms. Each article is introduced by an abstract by Dr. Hriso which
puts the various concepts into a modern perspective. The third section is
the catalogue of psychotic symptoms. The last section is biographic summary
of the life of Clerambault.
This work is unprecedented as
no such catalogue of psychotic symptoms has ever been established. It serves
as the basic reference manual on psychosis. It is useful to clinicians,
researchers, mental health professionals, families of the psychotic individuals,
or anyone who seeks to obtain a fuller understanding of psychosis.