A Short Introduction to Psychiatry is designed to give readers a clear picture of the profession as it is today and an understanding of the subject from which to develop further study. Linda Gask describes the development of the profession, the route to qualification and the scope of contemporary practice, including the work done by psychiatrists in a range of specialisms - from child psychiatry to addiction services and forensic psychiatry. Drawing on the experience of people who have been through psychiatric treatment, the book also explores what psychiatry is like from the patient's//user's perspective. Many criticisms have been levelled against the profession and the author, Linda Gask summarizes key debates which have been and continue to be played out between psychiatry's critics and its defenders.