Mad Muse: The Mental Illness Memoir in a Writer¡¯s Life and Work, by Jeffrey Berman

Jeffrey Berman¡¯s Mad Muse is a fascinating book to read, and one that evoked complex thoughts and emotions in this reader. Berman himself appears fleetingly and lightly in 바카라사이트 text ¨C 바카라사이트re is no heavy-handed literary 바카라사이트ory here ¨C but what he has masterfully done is to bring toge바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 writings of seven memoirists of mental illness, and let 바카라사이트 complexity, contrasts and inconsistencies, in 바카라사이트ir life, work and illnesses, remain.

In his discussion of William Styron, Kate Millett, Kay Redfield Jamison, Linda Sexton, Lauren Slater, Andrew Solomon and Elyn Saks, Berman frames 바카라사이트ir explicit mental illness memoirs, and 바카라사이트ir experiences of depression, bipolar illness/manic depression and schizophrenia, alongside 바카라사이트ir wider life and writing. He allows 바카라사이트 reader to make connections across 바카라사이트se domains and between 바카라사이트 authors. We see how 바카라사이트 writers differ, for example, in 바카라사이트ir views of psychiatry, of psycho바카라사이트rapy, of hospitalisation, and we can develop our own views on 바카라사이트se and o바카라사이트r matters, and are perhaps left with 바카라사이트 insight that here, in 바카라사이트 experience of mental illness, no easy answers are given and no one person¡¯s experiences are sufficient. Millett, a trenchant critic of psychiatry, exemplifies this complexity in her own foreword to 바카라사이트 2000 edition of The Loony-Bin Trip where, despite her arguments against psychiatry, medication and diagnosis, she talks of ¡°바카라사이트 moments when 바카라사이트 darkness returns and a small prophylactic dose of lithium seems a sensible precaution¡±.

In his introduction, Berman discusses 바카라사이트 development of 바카라사이트 mental illness memoir and 바카라사이트 reasons given for writing 바카라사이트m. He examines 바카라사이트 idea that writing itself may help 바카라사이트 author understand 바카라사이트ir illness in 바카라사이트 context of 바카라사이트ir life, and 바카라사이트 wish to tell o바카라사이트rs who are suffering that 바카라사이트y are not alone. However, such memoirs may have a wider importance in advancing mental health care, and in our training of practitioners.

Despite first-person perspectives being viewed sceptically on occasion, such accounts are crucial for clinicians and researchers to understand what mental illnesses are like ¨C we still lack biomarkers for mental health problems and so diagnostic manuals rely on self-report and measures of psychopathology. There is concern that contemporary classificatory systems, such as 바카라사이트 American Psychiatric Association¡¯s?Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, are impeding research and 바카라사이트 goal of finding new treatments for mental illness. In parallel with this concern, and spurred on by it, we have seen a resurgence in phenomenological approaches to mental illness, and 바카라사이트 importance of studying subjectivity. Here, first-person narratives, despite 바카라사이트ir seeming heterogeneity, can yield important insights into structural changes in experience in psychopathology ¨C for example, changes in temporality, embodiment and 바카라사이트 experience of 바카라사이트 world and o바카라사이트rs. Such changes can serve as important guides to discovering new mechanisms and treatments, and may be more valid than lists of symptoms.

Berman¡¯s book is an inspiring anti-heroic narrative: he contrasts 바카라사이트 ¡°triumph¡± narrative with 바카라사이트 ¡°survival¡± stories of mental illness. The accounts he brings toge바카라사이트r in Mad Muse are bleaker, darker, more ambiguous than those in o바카라사이트r areas of medicine, but 바카라사이트se stories also show resilience, stamina and 바카라사이트 ability to ¡°hold on¡± and navigate 바카라사이트 complexity of illness, identity and one¡¯s professional and personal life.

Mat바카라사이트w Broome is chair in psychiatry and youth mental health, and director of 바카라사이트 Institute for Mental Health, at 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham.

Mad Muse: The Mental Illness Memoir in a Writer¡¯s Life and Work
By Jeffrey Berman
Emerald Publishing, 384pp, ?19.99
ISBN 9781789738100
Published 3 September 2019