Book Review: Forgetting Items: The Social Experience of Alzheimer’s Disease

By Catherine Van Son

The number of people living with dementia is growing exponentially. The effects of this neurocognitive disorder (the majority are the Alzheimer’s type) are not confined to the numbers affected by the condition. The impact of dementia on the lives of persons living with dementia (PLWD), their caregivers and care professionals must be explored. It is important to reflect on the relationship between society and dementia as it has an overwhelming effect on the individual and those around them. From the moment a person is suspected to be suffering from dementia, their social interactions with others progressively changes.

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A clarion call to critical digital health studies

By Sarah Riley, April 2020

In this Book Review, Sarah Riley provides a review of Digital health: Critical and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives by Deborah Lupton. This is the third review of the books from the Critical Approaches to Health  series co- edited by Kerry Chamberlain and Antonia Lyons, and published by Routledge, in association with the International Society for Critical Health Psychology. (ISCHP members receive a discount on the purchase price of books in the series.)

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Urban Poverty & Health Inequalities

By Joseph Mwita Kisito, February 2020

Joseph Mwita Kisito reviews Urban Poverty and Health Inequalities: A related Approach (by Darrin Hodgetts and Ottilie Stolte) in this third review of the books from the Critical Approaches to Health  series. The series is co-edited by Kerry Chamberlain and Antonia Lyons, and published by Routledge, in association with the International Society for Critical Health Psychology. (ISCHP members receive a discount on the purchase price of books in the series.)

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Consuming health: postfeminism, critical psychology & media perspectives

By Silke Schwarz, December 2019

In this Book Review, Silke Swartz provides her perspective and insights on Postfeminism and health: Critical psychology and media perspectives by Sarah Riley, Adrienne Evans and Martine Robson. This is the second review of the books from the Critical Approaches to Health  series co-edited by Kerry Chamberlain and Antonia Lyons, and published by Routledge, in association with the International Society for Critical Health Psychology. (ISCHP members receive a discount on the purchase price of books in the series.)

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Challenging the meaning of successful ageing

Sharon Johnson, October 2019

In this Book Review, Sharon Johnson provides her perspective and insights on Healthy Ageing: A Capability Approach to Inclusive Policy and Practice by Christine Stephens & Mary Breheny. This is the first review of the books from the Critical Approaches to Health  series co- edited by Kerry Chamberlain and Antonia Lyons, and published by Routledge, in association with the International Society for Critical Health Psychology. (ISCHP members receive a discount on the purchase price of books in the series.)

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Book review: Laura Ellingson (2017). Embodiment in qualitative research. Routledge.

Book review by Craig Owen

Ellingson photo

In this text, Laura Ellingson provides a theoretical approach, a methodological philosophy, and a range of practical tips and examples for how to attend to the meaningful presence of your own and your research participants’ bodies throughout all stages of the research process.

Laura starts by taking a poststructuralist approach to theorising embodiment. She calls on us to recognise how the body is always in a process of becoming, a liminal state that is shifting and never fixed or finalised. The goal of research on embodiment is thus to shine a light on this dynamic process, to capture snapshots of these transitions, changes and movements of the body over time.

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Critical texts for those new to critical psychology

~Britta Wigginton (b.wigginton@uq.edu.au)

The field of critical psychology can seem overwhelming.

I speak from personal experience. I completed my PhD in a department that was entirely positivist (‘scientific’), with the exception of my supervisor who encouraged me, despite being in the first month of my PhD, to attend the 2011 ISCHP conference in Adelaide. For me, critical psychology has been as much a professional as it has a personal (re)education into the world.

critical psychology reading list

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