Book Description:
This is a remarkable book by a first–time author written in a personal narrative style that is quite compelling. A 5—year love affair with Psychiatry is out in the open and for good reasons. One experiences a gamut of emotions reading through the pages: joy in the infectious mood of the hypomanic patient’s flight of ideas; confusion in the schizophrenic patient’s looseness of association; unease in the accusations of someone with delusions of jealousy; sadness in the tragedy of the Alzheimer’s patient. Or gnashing of teeth upon the death of a patient hanging from a tree. It is hard to imagine any other branch of Medicine that can evoke such varied emotions. Psychiatry has that power. In the midst of these cornucopias of vicarious thrills, there is the presence of William Shakespeare whose brilliant psychological insights are so awesome that is tempting to declare him, possibly, in the author’s view, the “First Psychiatrist.”
General Thoughts:
If you pick up this book expecting a memoir-style narrative, like me, then you’re in for a big surprise. The author takes the reader on a journey with an almost textbook-like approach with some personal experiences weaved through in the form of vignettes and quotes from Shakespeare. He also talks about very relevant topics such as family dynamics, culture, religion, sexuality, and the ever-growing presence of social media and how it affects people and their mental health.
I enjoyed both aspects of the book. Though I will admit it took me a while to get through the book, not because I did not find it interesting but because I found myself stopping to research terminologies I was not familiar with. I am not a psychiatrist nor a student of any branch of medicine but despite that I still found the book to be relatively easy to understand and full of valuable insights. Not only for myself but for people around me who go through mental health disorders. I think the author achieved the perfect balance of being informative, and humorous, and having an accessible writing style to cater to a wide range of readers.
All in all, I would recommend this book not just to medical students nor people like me who seek to understand not only themselves and their disorders but also to the family and friends of people who need professional help. I think books like this can shed a lot of light on sensitive topics surrounding mental health, especially since a lot of times it can be miss represented in mainstream media which can lead to unfair assumptions and bias even until today.
Lastly, while I think it is expected that this book will tackle very sensitive topics. I would still like to mention some trigger warnings for those needing it. This book discusses suicide, physical, sexual and mental abuse, violence, self-harm, grief, guilt, broken families, and marital problems.
In summary:
Pros:
- Good balance of the technical and personal side of being a psychiatrist
- Discussed relevant topics that contribute to mental health
- Easy to understand writing style
- Informative and insightful
(Personal) cons:
- There were a lot of medical terms and references I needed to research about.
Star rating
I would give this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars. It truly is a great tool and learning resource to have on hand.
More in-depth thoughts:
What I liked:
The Vignettes:
As I said in my general thoughts the more technical discussions in this book was supplemented by short sample cases that provided a window to the author’s experience with actual patients and their family members. I liked this aspect of the book because it gives so much more insight and practical application to the symptoms and theories being discussed. Do be warned though a lot of it is quite heavy to read. I often found myself stopping just to breathe in and settle my emotions before continuing. Especially the ones where he talks about suicide and depression.
Writing in Taglish:
It’s always nice to see a little bit more of our culture being implemented in published works and I really appreciate that the author decided to weave in the fact that most people do speak in taglish in this country so he used that in this book. Not just for the accuracy but also for accessibility and ability to relate more to what he’s trying to convey.
Niibookreader 