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ashleysas's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
mischief_in_the_library's review
2.0
I really wanted to like this. A glimpse into the experiences of a psychologist just starting out, thrown into a scary world of diagnoses and mental health issues, exactly where I am as a new psychologist. In the epilogue, the author did mention that she was conscious of being very open about her flaws and growing period of the time, but which I think is a brave and honest thing to do. But the main issue I had was with the disrespectful way the author spoke about some of the people she worked with. It's one thing to admit to thinking a certain way about some people at the time, while acknowledging that your understanding and empathy has changed since then. But I didn't feel that with some of them. In the very first chapter, she refers to transgender women as men/women and puts their female names in quotation marks. This might have been understandable at the time but pretty offensive in 2014, when the book was published. Glibly wondering how she could possibly empathise with anorexic patients when she wanted to lose weight (how lucky they can do it so easily) was pretty uncomfortable to read, too, and again, would have been far more palatable if she spends some time acknowledging the way those thoughts were probably unhelpful and unfair.
I also found it a bit concerning that she seemed to be free to take on pretty complicated clients with barely any training. I don't know exactly how it is (or was) done in the UK, but undergraduate psych is nowhere near enough to be competent to see clients by yourself here in Australia.
In the end, I think I was also expecting something different to what was presented. I've read a lot of books with interesting case studies, anonymised to protect confidentiality. In this book, being told repeatedly at the end of the book that the described people were completely fictional, with very neat narratives and an "aha!" moment at just the right time, made me wonder why it was placed in the non-fiction section.
I also found it a bit concerning that she seemed to be free to take on pretty complicated clients with barely any training. I don't know exactly how it is (or was) done in the UK, but undergraduate psych is nowhere near enough to be competent to see clients by yourself here in Australia.
In the end, I think I was also expecting something different to what was presented. I've read a lot of books with interesting case studies, anonymised to protect confidentiality. In this book, being told repeatedly at the end of the book that the described people were completely fictional, with very neat narratives and an "aha!" moment at just the right time, made me wonder why it was placed in the non-fiction section.
rebeccaariss's review
5.0
"I have read many books written by people working in the field of mental health in which they've described cases they've worked. One thing that has always struck me is that the spotlight tends to be on the people being treated, never also on those of us doing the treating.
For me, this approach appears to collude with the prevailing and dangerous belief that there are people who are 'mad' and people who aren't. It also elevates the role of the mental health practitioner unduly - we appear to observe, assess, formulate, and treat from some distant vantage point. I don't believe that it works like that.
In these pages, I have tried to capture my own journey, to show how the differences between patient and clinician are often slight, merely a matter of degrees."
Tanya Byron balanced her experiences with patient stories so thoughtfully and carefully. This book was clearly a labour of love and flows like a good fictional novel. In describing her various clinical placements, she covered a range of different ages, genders, levels of privilege, and experiences with mental illnesses. The book is just so well balanced and I loved her British voice and humour.
A few more favourite quotes from the epilogue:
"I don't like being part of a society that feels comfortable with discarding people who do not express their vulnerability in a way that we can accept, understand and tolerate."
"We don't like mental illness. We don't want it in ourselves because it frightens us. We have no time or desire to engage with it in others except as something to gawp at and to define ourselves against. We expect people to be mentally ill in ways that are comfortable for us, or we discard and disown them. We buy into a model of health that requires mental illness to be cured within prescribed time frames and narrow parameters."
Having just completed my own placement in mental health nursing, this book satisfied my need for the experiences I have not yet had in practice. I think my only criticism would be that while dealing with many difficult topics, the author might have skimmed details to make the book easier to digest. On the other hand, though, in doing so she made the book lighter and enjoyable to read and this was a nice break from the more "real" aspects of my life. An empathetic read about a topic we don't talk about enough. Would definitely recommend this to others!
For me, this approach appears to collude with the prevailing and dangerous belief that there are people who are 'mad' and people who aren't. It also elevates the role of the mental health practitioner unduly - we appear to observe, assess, formulate, and treat from some distant vantage point. I don't believe that it works like that.
In these pages, I have tried to capture my own journey, to show how the differences between patient and clinician are often slight, merely a matter of degrees."
Tanya Byron balanced her experiences with patient stories so thoughtfully and carefully. This book was clearly a labour of love and flows like a good fictional novel. In describing her various clinical placements, she covered a range of different ages, genders, levels of privilege, and experiences with mental illnesses. The book is just so well balanced and I loved her British voice and humour.
A few more favourite quotes from the epilogue:
"I don't like being part of a society that feels comfortable with discarding people who do not express their vulnerability in a way that we can accept, understand and tolerate."
"We don't like mental illness. We don't want it in ourselves because it frightens us. We have no time or desire to engage with it in others except as something to gawp at and to define ourselves against. We expect people to be mentally ill in ways that are comfortable for us, or we discard and disown them. We buy into a model of health that requires mental illness to be cured within prescribed time frames and narrow parameters."
Having just completed my own placement in mental health nursing, this book satisfied my need for the experiences I have not yet had in practice. I think my only criticism would be that while dealing with many difficult topics, the author might have skimmed details to make the book easier to digest. On the other hand, though, in doing so she made the book lighter and enjoyable to read and this was a nice break from the more "real" aspects of my life. An empathetic read about a topic we don't talk about enough. Would definitely recommend this to others!
stinamirabilis's review
3.0
Mum sent me a copy of this in the mail, since I have recently decided to study towards becoming a clinical psychologist, and I found it really fascinating. What I particularly liked about it was that it covered a broad cross-section of mental illnesses and of people in general, rather than focusing on one particular thing. It was also easy to read and accessible even to people who have no experience in the field.
heathersimpson03's review
3.0
A quick, easy read but I couldn't get this bitter taste off my tongue. Clinical Psychology is a journey that is increasingly becoming paved for the wealthiest in this society. I understand this journey is a learning curve, but I find the lack of representation of working class people who go into this career disheartening. Maybe I am projecting, but many of the revelations this author makes in her postgrad I (and many of my peers) have made working support work/ care jobs in undegrad. Although I do find her accounts interesting and potentially useful for those more privileged in society, in frustrated that yet again wealthy people are given the podium to share their stories.
megan2705's review
4.0
As someone who aspires to be a Clinical Psychologist, I really enjoyed this book and found it inspiring. At first I wasn't sure if I was liking it and I think partly that was because I had unrealistic expectations from the book and partly because of the nature of the events near the start of the book. But as the book progressed and you saw Tanya develop throughout her placements and you began to hear people's stories I found it raw and emotional and I felt connected with these people. I also found her relationship with her supervisor really intriguing and I enjoyed watching this progress throughout the book. Obviously Tanya did her training around three decades ago so it is very different to how it is now but I still took a lot from this book and I think it will remain with me as I hopefully follow in her footsteps.