Controversies and dilemmas in contemporary psychiatry

Copyright © 2011 by Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. E-mail for permission to publish: amabih@anubih.ba him an internationally acknowledged scholar. As Professor Kecmanovic authored or edited a great many widely read psychiatry textbooks he has contributed enormously to the education of medical students, psychiatric residents, psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric social workers in the former Yugoslavia in general and in the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina in particular. Kecmanovic’s latest book is entitled Controversies and Dilemmas in Contemporary Psychiatry. As the title suggests, it deals with those topics in psychiatry that are debatable in the fi rst place. And there are many of them. As Kecmanovic put it, if we take all the dilemmas out of psychiatry there is not much psychiatry left . Kecmanovic does not take sides. He dissects arguments, casts light on the pros and cons. He explains how some dilemmas might be resolved, and why others are not likely to be resolved because the resolution of them is simply beyond the scope of psychiatry. Kecmanovic is focused on the most important and most intriguing questions that psychiatrists cannot help but confront – no matter whether they are more interested in conceptual issues or in day-to-day clinical practice. Indeed, most psychiatrists are not keen on discussing controversies and dilemmas in contemporary psychiatry because they believe that debating burning psychiatric questions unveils the weaknesses of psychiatry and thereby tarnishes the public image of psychiatry. In this book Kecmanovic forces psychiatrists to face up to the aspects of their job that are only apparently question-free. Th at is only one of the reasons why the book deserves their attention. Kecmanovic has chosen to discuss those subject-matters that, in his opinion, contain the main controversies and dilemmas in contemporary psychiatry, such as the defi nition of mental disorder, mental health, similarities and difDusan Kecmanovic is one of the most prominent psychiatrists in the former Yugoslavia. Before leaving Sarajevo in 1993 he was Professor of Psychiatry and Political Psychology at Sarajevo University, and a member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His publications – 24 books and more than 250 papers (as the primary author) published by reputed publishers and in respected journals – made Acta Medica Academica 2011;40(1):195-196 DOI 10.5644/ama2006-124.27