Published By: Jonathan Cape
Pages: 288
Released On: 16/05/2024
A woman with bipolar flies from America in a wedding dress to marry Harry Styles.
A lorry driver with schizophrenia believes he’s got a cure for coronavirus.
A depressed psychiatrist hides his profession from his GP due to stigma.
Most of the characters in this book are his patients. Some of them are family. One of them is him.
Unlocking the doors to the psych ward, NHS psychiatrist Dr Benji Waterhouse provides a fly-on-the-padded-wall account of medicine’s most mysterious and controversial speciality.
Why would anyone in their right mind choose to be a psychiatrist? Are the solutions to people’s messy lives really within medical school textbooks? And how can vulnerable patients receive the care they need when psychiatry lacks staff, hospital beds and any actual cures?
You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here explores these complicated questions from both sides of the doctor’s desk.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Jonathan Cape for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I thought this was excellent! If you liked Adam Kay’s humorous medical memoirs, then this should definitely by high up on your list.
I have had therapy on and off for over 15 years, with varying successes, but it’s left me with an interest in psychiatry and this sounded like it would be interesting and good fun.
There’s definitely this dark, morbid humour that I think is vital in every medical profession. You find yourself laughing at something, and then feeling mad that you’ve laughed at it. But it’s alright to laugh. As someone with physical and mental problems, I have learned that laughing is good, otherwise I’d just sit here and cry.
Even for someone with mental health difficulties, I am in awe at doctors who specialise in that area. Even with the help there is nowadays, it can be a lot harder to see a mental health illness and so harder to treat, than a physical injury like a broken leg. And the repercussions of getting that treatment wrong can be a lot more serious.
I’m always worried when a book says that all the people, locations, dates, and identifiable information has been changed as I worry how the truth of the matter can be written, and that it would become more fictional than non. But you can see Benji’s experience in this, things I don’t even think the most imaginative author could invent.
I apologise for such a short review; obviously there’s no plot or characters to discuss etc. But put simply, it is a very interesting book, fascinating, but also entertaining. It’s happy and sad, hopeful but despairing. It shows the whole spectrum of mental health and mental illness, and I really would recommend this to anyone who loves medical books, memoirs, humour, or those just wanting a good read.
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