title: Families of the Mentally III Hatfield A Lefley H Families of the Mentally III Cassell 336pp £14.95 0-304-31422-6 [Formula: see text].
abstract: Agnes Hatfield and Harriet Lefley draw on expertise from the fields of psychology, education, nursing, psychiatry and rehabilitation to produce a graphic account of the effects mental illness has on families and the ways in which they cope. Underlying assumptions about causation of severe mental illness are challenged and the focus switches from the 'why?' to the 'so what happens now?', which seems to me a more productive approach.