Psychology for Writers

Review of The Writer’s Guide to Psychology: How to Write Accurately about Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment and Human Behavior by Carolyn Kaufman. Quill Driver Books, 230 pages.

The reviewer, Susan Hart Hellman, asks, “Where can writers who don’t know a fugue state from a red state, or the difference between social phobia and social networking, turn? The answer is Carolyn Kaufman’s The Writer’s Guide to Psychology. With a B.A. in English and psychology and a Psy.D. in clinical psychology, Kaufman helps authors assure the accuracy of characters and events related to mental health.”

Comment: Without having read this primer on mental health, I can guess that this primer could be helpful to teachers, as well as writers. As the diseases of childhood proliferate, a reference that offers accurate information on the mental health problems of children could be enlightening. It may show that ADD and Autism are so much BS or not. RayS.

Title: “A Helpful Psychology Primer for Writers.” Susan Hart Hellman. The Writer (May 2011), p. 21.