The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), a leading academic and research organization in the field of social welfare announced the winners of the 2015 award for the “Best Scholarly Book in Social Work Published in the last three years.” FSU College of Social Work Associate Professor Dr. Tomi Gomory’s book Mad Science: Coercion, Diagnosis, and Drugs received one of the two honorable mention awards.

“It is very gratifying to be picked among the top three scholarly social work books from the dozens and dozens that are published each year,” Dr. Gomory said about the award.

The book, written by Dr. Gomory and his coauthors Dr. Stuart A. Kirk of the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California at Los Angeles (emeritus) and Dr. David Cohen also from the University of California at Los Angeles, Luskin School of Public Affairs has received national media attention for addressing the complexities of mental health; its troubled history, its struggles with effective treatments and its possible future in helping society’s most troubled members.

Mad Science: Coercion, Diagnosis, and Drugs argues that the fundamental claims of modern American psychiatry are not based on convincing research, but on misconceived, flawed and distorted science. The authors address multiple paradoxes in American mental health, including the remaking of coercion into scientific psychiatric treatment in the community, the adoption of an unscientific diagnostic system that now controls the distribution of services, and how drug treatments have failed to improve mental health outcomes. The book provides an engaging and readable scientific and social critique of current mental health practices and develops an insightful perspective on psychiatric history. The authors are scholars, researchers and clinicians who have written extensively about community care, diagnosis, and psychoactive drugs.

The award will be presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conferences in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 17, 2015.

To learn more about the book, contact Dr. Gomory at tgomory@fsu.edu or find it online.