I am drawn to memoirs, especially associated with mental illness. To be inside the head of someone suffering from a disorder allows for a level of understanding that is unmatched by textbook facts on symptoms and treatments.
"Welcome to my country" is 80% wonderful. Lauren is a first-year counselor in a group home for schizophrenic men. Her fears-to-concerns-to-comfort spectrum show the emotions we've been warned first-year counselors go through "is this good enoug" "can i really help" "why are there no results".....
The problem with a memoir is that there's a part of a person that you really don't care about-- you still get it in writing, and have to schlep through it to get to the parts you like. Flashbacks to her adolescent, eating disorder years and her own desire for control just as her patients strive for it as well worried me-- not that everyone magically becomes perfect when they've gotten an MA or PhD, but that if these issues are resolved, tehy should not play so actively into the counseling relationship.
The family history her patients present makes you worry and think all at once. Some mental disorders are so engranded in envornment, others spring up randomly. Makes you never want to have kids, really.
Bottom line: I have total respect for those who do, but no desire to work with scizophrenics. Or in a group home. A dorky delicacy, but not for typical consumption..
5 comments:
Welcome to the blogsphere (see... I know the lingo)...
I might have to borrow that book from you sometime, because it sounds somewhat reminiscent of Eden Express. I have a strange feeling that your books are going to be largely centered around crazy people :-)
well i do love them crazy people...
Yeah, I know what you mean about memoir. I wonder if she included the parts about her own past to get some variety into the narrative? Maybe she was just trying to make it a better story.
I heard that "Send in the Idiots" was a great book about autism, which I started and then gave to a friend whose younger brother is autistic. I loved the first chapter. Maybe I will try to pick it up again.
the autism stuff is so amazing.
Penn State does an online certificate in autism studies-- im so looking into doing that post-masters... wanna join me?
Thanks for writing this.
Post a Comment