Abnormal Psychology PS 335-01 Raftery-Helmer

Book Club Summary

We will have three book club meetings throughout the semester to help you read and digest

your memoir. These meetings will help you stay on top of your memoir reading, provide you

with peer support for your interpretation of the memoir, and aid in your thinking about your

final memoir paper.

The book club summaries will be completed by each member individually. Each summary

should only be 1-2 pages, and does not need to be written formally or in APA style. Each

summary will contain two sections: (1) a brief summary of your discussion during the

meeting, and (2) ‘props’/compliments for your groupmates (e.g., tell me how your

groupmates contributed to your understanding of and appreciation for the memoir).

Due

Book Club Summary #1 Wednesday 3/24 at 8:00am

Book Club Summary #2 Wednesday 4/14 at 8:00am

Book Club Summary #3 Wednesday 4/28 at 8:00am
Please upload all book club summaries to your individual folder located in the class google drive

folder

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1px9LMSV4znVSD30zccRGs5ComnBJtwUy?usp=sharing

Below please find a list of questions you might use to guide your discussion during your

book club meeting. Select questions that are most appropriate to how much of your memoir

you have read and what we’ve learned in class.

• Share a passage from the book that made an impact on you in some way. Why was
this passage particularly powerful?

• Has the author described any abnormal thoughts, feelings, or behaviors thus far?
How do you know they are abnormal? Use the 4 Ds from class (e.g. deviance,

dysfunction, distress, danger) to determine if the behavior is abnormal.

• Is the author experiencing impairment in functioning? How do you determine what is
impairment and what is just normal between-person difference?

• What does the author attribute their mental health symptoms to? What are some
other potential contributing factors that the author may/may not be aware of that

YOU see?

• How have people in the author’s life responded to their symptoms? How have their
family and friends reacted? Have their reactions been helpful? Hurtful? Neutral?

• What are the mechanisms that are maintaining or perpetuating the author’s
symptoms? In other words, why isn’t the person getting better?

• What are some likely diagnoses for this author? Have they self-diagnosed or been
diagnosed by a mental health professional? Review the DSM-5 criteria for the

diagnosis you have in mind. Does their account seem to match the symptoms

criteria?

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1px9LMSV4znVSD30zccRGs5ComnBJtwUy?usp=sharing

Abnormal Psychology PS 335-01 Raftery-Helmer

• Has the author received any treatment for the symptoms? Why or why not? What kind
of treatment is the author receiving and why?

• How has the author reacted to receiving mental health treatment? Has the treatment
been helpful, harmful, or both so far? Think about both changes to their symptoms

and their general well-being.

• Why do you think the author chose to share this story? What about this memoir could
be helpful to others? To whom would you want to gift this memoir and why?