Library Talk: Why Psychosis Is Not So Crazy

Dr. Leon Brenner and Prof. Stijn Vanheule’s book "Why Psychosis Is Not So Crazy: A Road Map to Hope and Recovery for Families and Caregivers"

In this fantastic new book, Prof. Stijn Vanheule offers compassionate insights to help family members and friends support loved ones during mental health crises. Approximately 15 percent of people will experience psychosis—a profound disconnect from reality—yet psychosis remains challenging to discuss and understand. Since human connection relies on shared stories and meanings, psychosis disrupts these very foundations, leaving us uncertain of how to engage. How can we communicate when someone experiences reality so differently from our own?

Drawing on his psychoanalytic expertise, Vanheule combines classic theories from Freud to Lacan with contemporary research and vivid examples from his patients’ lives and renowned figures like director David Lynch and artist Yayoi Kusama. This book provides a nuanced perspective on psychosis, making it an invaluable resource for anyone looking to bridge the gap in understanding and strengthen their relationships with loved ones facing this condition.

Stijn Vanheule, PhD,is a clinical psychologist, professor at Ghent University, Belgium, and psychoanalyst in private practice (New Lacanian School for Psychoanalysis and World Association of Psychoanalysis). He is the author of the books The Subject of Psychosis: A Lacanian Perspective, Diagnosis and the DSM: A Critical Review, and Psychiatric Diagnosis Revisited: From DSM to Clinical Case Formulation, as well as multiple papers on Lacanian and Freudian psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic research into psychopathology, and clinical diagnosis.

Dr. Leon S. Brenner is a lecturer at the International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin. He is a member of the APPI, LOB, and a founder of Lacanian Affinities Berlin (laLAB) and Unconscious Berlin. His latest book on the subject of the psychoanalysis of autism is called The Autistic Subject: On the Threshold of Language, where he presents a novel account of autistic subjectivity from a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective.