Fiction's Madness - Softcover

This is a book of immense power. It deploys all the devices that literature is capable of to press its case, to argue forcibly and persuasively for the humanising of psychiatry - It is a book that demonstrates how fundamental to clinical practice is a familiarity with the humanities, the interpretative and critical domains of our intellectual life - The act of reading carefully prepares us to listen carefully in the clinical setting, to think and reflect, to consider and engage empathically, and to imagine the world of the Other as if it were our own. Femi Oyebode, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Birmingham Clarke is a polymath whose turn of phrase might irritate as well as inform. In a sense though, this is one of the strengths of the book -it invigorated me ... and should invigorate any clinician who might ever have contemplated being an 'artist-practitioner', and help all of us withstand pressures to endorse narrow conceptions of what it is to be a human being. It would form the basis of a brilliant course, includes short discussion papers relating to each text (e.g., on Laing, Freud and Jung) and any course organiser would of course be able to add their personal favourites ... Guy Holmes, Clinical Psychologist, South Staffs and Shropshire NHS Foundation Trust

Fiction can be a powerful adjunct to mental health education and practice, its capacity to clarify and enlighten aspects of the field beyond doubt. With a rare gift for making the scholarly accessible, Liam Clarke presents an original interpretation of mental health issues based on some of the greatest works of English fiction. Utilizing plays and novels, as well as a wide range of critical sources, he provides many fascinating and provocative insights into human distress, its effects and consequences both past and present. If we seek to encounter people and not to decode them, so must we look at ourselves from whatever perspectives we can. This groundbreaking book makes a fine contribution to an enterprise that is as necessary as it is enjoyable and rewarding.