17171 Bothell Way NE, PMB 201, Seattle, WA 98155 206.781.3588

Crisis Intervention Resources

17171 Bothell Way NE, PMB 201, Seattle, WA 98155 206.781.3588

RECOMMENDED READING:

ASSESSMENT

Melton, Gary & Petrila, J., Poythress, N., Slobogin, C.

PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATIONS FOR THE COURTS: A Handbook for Mental Health Professionals and Lawyers

2nd ed. The Guilford Press, New York, N.Y., (undated by pub.)

The gold-standard resource for forensic psychological concerns – both on the part of mental health professionals and lawyers. I am in agreement with their statement that judges and juries are LEAST swayed by psychometric testing, and most by phenomenological information (clinical interviews, etc. – information that makes the subject a real person). My greatest concern is that, for both legal reasons and the authors’ perspective on ethics, they very strongly state that the evaluator should express no opinions as to risk. It is their opinion that the evaluator has too much power to sway a court, with little to no track-record of better prediction than lay-people. It is my view, however, that the evaluator must express opinions, BUT must be able to both explain and support any interpretations – that it is the task of the lawyer to demand that the evaluator both make sense and explain what the information he or she acquired means to him or her…and thus, possibly to the court.

Rogers, Richard, Ed.

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT OF MALINGERING AND DECEPTION

The Guilford Press, New York, N.Y., 1988

My edition is a decade and a half old – I therefore, would not be surprised if it has been updated. Not an easy read, but absolutely excellent information – on both clinical (unstructured interview) and psychometric evaluation methods (structured interview methods) to detect malingering and deception of mental illness.

Walters, Stan B.

THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING: How to Spot a Lie and Protect Yourself from Deception

Sourcebooks, Inc., Naperville, Illinois, 2000

Readable and easy to use book on the observation in changes in behavior and other patterns of communication that indicate stress, and possibly lying.

AUTISM & ASPERGER'S SYNDROME

Collins, Paul

NOT EVEN WRONG:A Father’s Journey Into the Lost History of Autism

Bloomsbury Publishing - Random House, New York, N.Y., 2004

Ranges from stories of “The Wild Child” to the techs at Microsoft who turn on a video feed on their laptops to watch the speech of the man in the auditorium speaking in front of them. It may be that human genius would be impossible without autism – Isaac Newton, for example, was almost certainly autistic. Collins conveys the world of the autistic with profound empathy – and this, sometimes, is even more powerful than a first person account, because he can convey what he knows in translation.Most significantly, this book is about Collins, his wife and their son, Morgan – aged three – and their passionate love for this little boy, and his, ever so subtle and whisper-soft emerging.

Moon, Elizabeth

THE SPEED OF DARK

Del Rey Books - Random House, New York, N.Y., 2005

A fictional book, set in the near future, which tells the story of an autistic man from the inside out. A very touching story, written by the mother of an autistic young man ñ you will actually be able to experience some of the world that the autistic person lives. Beautifully written, it poses the dilemma ñ the hero is a very lovable, very eccentric man, as are his compatriots in the company they work, doing pattern analysis. They have been offered a new treatment that will make them ìnormal.î What will then become of the men and women they are, that they struggled so hard to become? How much of our self is our experience, our history and our memories? With what degree of change are we no longer we? You truly will finish this book apprehending the possibility of experiencing the world quite differently that the way that you do now.

Prince-Hughes, Dawn

SONGS OF THE GORILLA NATION: My Journey Through Autism

Harmony Books – Random House, New York, N.Y., 2004

Lyrically written book by a woman who has Asperger’s Syndrome (so-called high-functioning autism).She is intellectually brilliant, and yet, finds many aspects of life among humans to be overwhelming.This is a life-story, where she describes becoming “socialized” through contact with gorillas at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington.She is currently an anthropologist, and a very convincing advocate for the position that the “great apes” are, in fact, human in all the ways we define ourselves.It is also a lovely counterpoint to The Dark Side of Man, (see in the section on Criminals) in describing the gentle side of primate behavior.

BODY, BRAIN, & MIND

Ekman, Paul

EMOTIONS REVEALED

Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, New York, N.Y., 2003

Paul Ekman is the pre-eminent researcher on facial expression.An excellent, well-written book on how basic emotions are universal, and reveal themselves on the face in recognizable patterns to people from any culture on earth. In addition, essential information on the evolutionary forces which created emotional responses as survival mechanism, and how identification of emotional responses at their outset can improve both communication and our ability to manage dysfunctional emotional responses

Gonzales, Laurence

DEEP SURVIVAL: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why

W.W. Norton & Company, New York, N.Y., 2003

A book that explores what character traits, and what neurological organization support and hinder survival in the most extreme of conditions.

THE BOOKS OF OLIVER SACKS

Incredibly humane, beautifully written, and providing wondrous insight into people with neurological dysfunctions and other ways of perceiving the world.

AWAKENINGS

E.P. Dutton, New York, N.Y., 1983

The book that the movie was based on – an account of an attempt to “awaken” people who had been locked into near coma for many decades, as an after-effect of the Great Flu Epidemic.

THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT

Perennial Library, New York, N.Y., 1985

Essays as lovely as the best of short stories, about people whose neurological disorders cause uncanny distortions of perception and intellect.Sacks is remarkably compassionate and respectful throughout.

A LEG TO STAND ON

Perennial Library, New York, N.Y., 1984

After a mountain fall, Sacks got a severely injured leg.Most frightening, he was afflicted by a neurological condition in which the leg no longer felt like is own.A beautiful account of himself as a patient – explores one’s sense of physical identity, and illness and healing.

MIGRAINE

Perennial Library, New York, N.Y., 1970

Essays on this remarkable, still unexplained condition.

UNCLE TUNGSTEN:Memories of a Chemical Boyhood

Vintage Books, New York, N.Y., 2001

This one isn’t about neurology – it is his biography – but it perfectly sets the other books, like frame to picture.And, you will appreciate chemistry in a way you, perhaps, never imagined that you would.

Semrau, Stanley & Gale, Judy

MURDEROUS MINDS ON TRIAL

The Dundurn Group, Toronto, Canada, 2002

Great stories of crimes and trials from an eminent forensic psychiatrist.He explains, in very entertaining fashion, just what a legitimate insanity defense based on diminished capacity should be.

CHILDREN

Glasser, Howard & Easley, Jennifer

TRANSFORMING THE DIFFICULT CHILD:The Nurtured Heart Approach

Published by Howard Glasser, Tucson Arizona, 1999

There is Pollyanna sweetness to this book that drives me up the wall. BUT, it is, in my opinion, a wonderful resource for families who have children with behavioral problems. The approach focuses on kids earning points to get privileges, but it is done in a way that the child becomes responsible for earning all the good things in life through good behavior.It has the best way of imposing consequences that I’ve ever seen.Finally, this approach is a great way to start when the parents have had difficulty with anger in their own right. Most parents with anger difficulties are frustrated, unskilled, or feel profoundly incompetent to change their miserable situation with their kids, whom they, nonetheless, love, and this approach gives the parents a “toolbox” so that they know what to do. Given this structure and procedures, they can set limits and discipline and give their kids something up-to-now lacking – real guidance and leadership.Again, the tone can easily make the reader thing that this book is a “liberal,” – let the children have their way – type of book, but read on.It is quite the opposite. It offers parents a chance to be really strong, really clear on values, and openly loving at the same time.

CRIMINALS, VIOLENCE & PSYCHOPATHS

Allen, Bud & Bosta, Diana

GAMES CRIMINALS PLAY: How You Can Profit by Knowing Them

Rae John Publishers, Berkeley CA, 1981-2002 (ISBN:0-9605226-0-3)

The slang dates the book, and so does some of the psychology and rehabilitation theory that frames it in the forward and afterwards.BUT – this book is absolutely dead-center when describing criminal cons.The setting for most of the book is prison, but it equally applies in the outside world.Graphically shows how the psychopath uses some of your best qualities (empathy, a desire to help, for example) as the leverage to gain power. Don’t consider working in a corrections setting or law enforcement unless you’ve read this!

Amis, Martin

KOBA THE DREAD: Laughter and the Twenty Million

Vintage Books, New York, N.Y., 2002

An book-length essay that wonders how the murderous reign of Stalin was somehow different, both in character, but more importantly, in the eyes of the “free world” than that of Hitler.And, if his description of Stalin is true, then here we have a picture of how a country would be run were a psychopath to be it’s absolute ruler.

Baumeister, Roy F.

EVIL: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty

W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, N.Y.,1997, 1999

A very readable blend of data from social psychology and anthropology, presenting a viewpoint of evil and violence from the perspective of the perpetrator, not the victim.If one wants to understand how perpetrators view themselves, this is among the very best places to start.Particularly valuable is Baumeister’s chapter that establishes that criminally violent individuals usually have high (albeit brittle) self-esteem rather than popular psychology’s common fantasy that their self-esteem is low.One place I do find him deficient is that he doesn’t adequately consider violence as ecstasy (“impact” takes you out of yourself).The closest he comes is in his discussion of sadism – taking pleasure in causing harm – but this is, in fact, quite different.

Black, Donald

BAD BOYS, BAD MEN:Confronting Antisocial Personality Disorder

Oxford University Press, Oxford, Great Britain, 1999

This is a pretty good book. However, it is like the Hubble Telescope before they put the proper lenses in – you can see the objects better than you would otherwise, but there is still a blur. Black is an eminent researcher and clinician, and the book cites a number of valuable works (the bibliography alone is probably worth the book).However, despite being aware of, even citing, the work of Robert Hare (see below), he doesn’t adequately learn from his work. Based on his note on Hare’s book at the end of his own, it appears that professional rivalry rather than science leads to what I consider Black’s blind spot, because there is a real difference between anti-social personality (ASP) and psychopathy. The current diagnosis of ASP focuses too much on criminal/exploitative behavior and not on the attitudes and psychological set of the perpetrator.ASP generally have a conscience, however, warped, and however skillful they are at turning it off at crucial moments – the psychopath does not, and also, the psychopath’s narcissism is absolutely central to his or her character, not merely a strong component as it is in ASP. Therefore, a clear differentiation of both character types is useful. Black does talk about all the aspects of the psychopath and ASP, but sees them as one and the same. Hare’s work, therefore, is far more useful.

Carr, James

BAD:The Autobiography of James Carr

Pelagian Press, London England, 1995

The book is published by a fringe beyond fringe anarcho-syndicalist group, and their politics, which Carr gravitated to, frames the book in forward and afterwards. Far more important that the rigid ideology is Carr’s story. Many of the hardest men were not born bad, although they might have been born with a hair-trigger temper, and ease with violent response.Put a child in harsh circumstances, and you will have someone who grows up to be a violent criminal – but many, like Carr, lived by a code, and given a chance to leave the “war zone,” willingly do so.Sadly, he was murdered soon afterwards.

Dutton, Donald, with Susan K. Golant

THE BATTERER: A Psychological Profile

Basic Books, New York, N.Y., 1995

Dutton is perhaps the pre-eminent researcher on violent males in relationships, particularly the "cyclical batterer," a man who is perniciously dependent upon his spouse or partner, this pathological need causing him to hate what he so needs.† The cyclical batterer follows a stereotypical pattern of fulminating internal tension, followed by violent assault followed by spurious remorse, the latter the flip side of his dependence.† In other words, either at his feet or on a pedestal, all his actions are frantic, often enraged attempts to keep her with him† - on his terms.

Earley, Pete

THE HOT HOUSE: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison

Bantam Books, New York, N.Y., 1992

Earley spent a lot of time interviewing some very bad men at Leavenworth in the late 1980’s.He focuses on five, all in the anti-social personality – psychopathy spectrum.He gets as close inside such men as one can get through the written word.

Ghiglieri, Michael P.

THE DARK SIDE OF MAN:Tracing the Origins of Male Violence

Perseus Books, New York, N.Y., 2000

Violence from the perspective of evolutionary biology.From this viewpoint, Grossman’s ON KILLING and Lonnie Athens' book (see Richard Rhodes below) display narrative explanations for actions and activities that are driven by far deeper primate/instinctive behavior.The interactionist and other theories make social experiences primary – from Ghiglieri’s perspective, these social causes are merely explanations, or at “best,” activating stimuli to what we are “made” to be.

Hare, Robert

WITHOUT CONSCIENCE:The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

Guilford Press, New York, N.Y., 1993

The gold standard on psychopathy.If this subject is of concern, for professional or personal reasons, this is the one book you must have.

Kellerman, Jonathan

SAVAGE SPAWN: Reflections on Violent Children

The Library of Contemporary Thought – Ballantine Publishing Group, New York, N.Y., 1999

This is kind of a “cliff-notes” rendition of current research on psychopathy.Kellerman is at his best in a common-sense review of the literature regarding theories – nature or nurture? Of course, it is both.Kellerman is righteously outraged and practical, offering hard-line suggestions on how to address the problem of violent kids as early as possible. At the same time, the book must be regarded as a superficial treatment of a far more complex subject – violent kids come in many varieties, motivated by many different reasons, and caused by many different factors.This complexity is lost in Kellerman’s treatment.

Moss, Jason

THE LAST VICTIM: A True-Life Journey into the Mind of the Serial Killer

Warner Vision Books, New York, N.Y., 1999

When a parent considers one’s worst fears regarding one’s child, it usually revolves around sex, drugs and rock-and-roll.One usually doesn’t imagine one’s teenage son creating a hobby of corresponding with serial killers in prison.A true story, in which Moss decided the best way to get them to write back, was to figure out their victims’ profiles, and pretend to be that victim.Most particularly chilling was his relationship with John Wayne Gacy – this book may give you the only “opportunity” you ever have to actually see a serial killer in stalk and attack modes.

Rhodes, Richard

WHY THEY KILL:The Discoveries of a Maverick Criminologist

Vintage Press, New York, N.Y., 1999

Rhodes covers (in far more readable fashion) the work of Lonnie Athens.Athens’ theory is that violence is primarily created through an interaction between a young people and the abusive experiences they witness or suffer – what Athens calls “violentization.”At first read, it seems to make perfect sense – but there is nothing in Athens' work that explains why one violent person rapes and another gets in violent fights.In my opinion, (see Ghiglieri above), Athens' establishes the social conditions which would tend to activate traits endemic to human beings towards violence.In a sense, he tells the story that violent people tell themselves to activate their violence.A very useful work – but not the inclusive answer to violence that it purports to be.