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lauraisbetteroffread's review
5.0
One of my favourite reads of the year. An entertaining but heartwarming look into the psychology of schizophrenia. Its impact, potential causes, and an analysis of the current diagnosis and treatment. Deeply interesting and important read.
libraryofemilyjayne's review against another edition
4.0
4.5⭐️
I was so excited to read this after reading Nathan Filer’s Shock of The Fall a few years ago - a book which I urge you all to read if you haven’t done so already.
I’ve always considered myself pretty well versed when it comes to a lot of the issues that surround society’s understanding of mental health experiences. In spite of this, however, I will always admit where my knowledge fails me and where I can educate myself further. For schizophrenia specifically, this has long been the case. Schizophrenia is undoubtedly one of the most commonly misunderstood - if not the most misunderstood - mental health conditions. It is a condition that is deemed as “one of the more scary” mental health conditions a person can experience, and it is commonly thought to make a person more dangerous, more aggressive. What Nathan Filer seeks to do throughout this book is dispel a lot of the common myths surrounding this illness and initiate a more honest and open conversation about what it means to be an individual living with and experiencing schizophrenia.
The book is made up a series of personal stories from people who have had varying experiences with schizophrenia - some have lived with the illness themselves, while others speak through their understanding of schizophrenia having seen their loved ones experience this condition. Each of these stories are deeply moving and incredibly poignant, and, ultimately, what each of these stories prove further is that no two people experience schizophrenia in the same way.
After hearing these stories, Filer then discusses the issues that are raised during these personal narratives: he discusses how rife stigma and discrimination are in today’s society and how this has implicated our understanding of schizophrenia more generally; the problematic nature of diagnosis; the hotly debated topic of medication; and what causes of schizophrenia have been identified, while admitting to their issues of determinism and simplicity.
The book reads like an extended essay, but is incredibly compassionate and perceptive. Above all though, the thing I would credit this book the most for is it’s accessibility. For those who come to this book with little or no understanding of schizophrenia will find that Filer doesn’t rely on heavy, medical language but uses his own experiences as a former mental health nurse to inform those reading this book about such a devastatingly misunderstood condition. Filer uses his humour and his personality to add real depth to this book, and it reminds us all exactly what means to be human.
I loved this book - it’s profound, it’s interesting but it’s also inspiring. Filer has written a book that is simultaneously heart-warming yet heart-breaking. There’s still a long way to go in society’s mission to understand what mental health is and the various conditions that can affect a person’s mental health, (including schizophrenia), but this book will take us all one step closer into understanding what it is like to experience mental ill-health.
I was so excited to read this after reading Nathan Filer’s Shock of The Fall a few years ago - a book which I urge you all to read if you haven’t done so already.
I’ve always considered myself pretty well versed when it comes to a lot of the issues that surround society’s understanding of mental health experiences. In spite of this, however, I will always admit where my knowledge fails me and where I can educate myself further. For schizophrenia specifically, this has long been the case. Schizophrenia is undoubtedly one of the most commonly misunderstood - if not the most misunderstood - mental health conditions. It is a condition that is deemed as “one of the more scary” mental health conditions a person can experience, and it is commonly thought to make a person more dangerous, more aggressive. What Nathan Filer seeks to do throughout this book is dispel a lot of the common myths surrounding this illness and initiate a more honest and open conversation about what it means to be an individual living with and experiencing schizophrenia.
The book is made up a series of personal stories from people who have had varying experiences with schizophrenia - some have lived with the illness themselves, while others speak through their understanding of schizophrenia having seen their loved ones experience this condition. Each of these stories are deeply moving and incredibly poignant, and, ultimately, what each of these stories prove further is that no two people experience schizophrenia in the same way.
After hearing these stories, Filer then discusses the issues that are raised during these personal narratives: he discusses how rife stigma and discrimination are in today’s society and how this has implicated our understanding of schizophrenia more generally; the problematic nature of diagnosis; the hotly debated topic of medication; and what causes of schizophrenia have been identified, while admitting to their issues of determinism and simplicity.
The book reads like an extended essay, but is incredibly compassionate and perceptive. Above all though, the thing I would credit this book the most for is it’s accessibility. For those who come to this book with little or no understanding of schizophrenia will find that Filer doesn’t rely on heavy, medical language but uses his own experiences as a former mental health nurse to inform those reading this book about such a devastatingly misunderstood condition. Filer uses his humour and his personality to add real depth to this book, and it reminds us all exactly what means to be human.
I loved this book - it’s profound, it’s interesting but it’s also inspiring. Filer has written a book that is simultaneously heart-warming yet heart-breaking. There’s still a long way to go in society’s mission to understand what mental health is and the various conditions that can affect a person’s mental health, (including schizophrenia), but this book will take us all one step closer into understanding what it is like to experience mental ill-health.
andintothetrees's review
5.0
An excellent book: well-written (with a little humour here and there), backs up its claims with research and covers an interesting topic. Nathan Filer is a mental health nurse and uses schizophrenia as the starting point to look at various issues within mental health and its treatment, by combining personal accounts with related discussion. It's particularly interesting that he chooses to look both at the conventional, Western view of mental health and its treatment and views more aligned with the "anti-psychiatry" movement. So there is discussion about how diagnoses are arrived at by observing symptoms and giving labels to those which tend to cluster together - it's a lot more arbitrary than diagnosing a health condition which has a clear microbial cause or can be seen on scans and such - and whether these labels mean anything beyond describing symptoms (I know some people find their diagnoses very helpful though, so I'm not taking sides here). There is analysis of schizophrenia within a wider social context and how race and poverty may affect diagnosis and the experience of mental health issues. He also explains how psychosis can feel to those experiencing it, and talks about treatment options and how anti-psychotics in particular have a lot of unwanted side effects - to the point where people who have been unwell for a long time may in fact be unwell at least partly because of their medication (though, as with diagnoses, he acknowledges that medication can have a vital role to play for some people). The only thing that was perhaps missing from this book was a look at how mental health is approached by non-Western medicine, but the author does say that he set out only to look at a Western (primarily UK based) context, so that's fair enough, though he does throw in at the end the interesting fact that people who have an episode of psychosis outwith Western healthcare systems are less likely to have a relapse of their condition.
georgeisreading's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
A poignant book that makes you rethink what you know about mental health. Written very well and easy to digest; it’s both heartbreaking and hopeful; asking important questions. I’d definitely recommend this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Suicide
katemeadow's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
paulataua's review against another edition
4.0
Well worth reading for the fantastic revelatory interviews and the telling critiques of the DMS. Those critiques should be enough to make us suspicious about the whole validity of psychiatry. Puzzling, however, is the fact that the author discloses so much and yet still seems to support the system and the practice. He seems comfortable with electroconvulsive therapy (brain toasting) and the use of medications (most often mind straitjackets) without consent. Quite rightly he puts ‘so called’ in inverted commas before schizophrenia, but is quite happy to leave ‘cure’ and ‘got better’ without that questioning punctuation. I , of course, want to add those marks. Read it and take all the wonderful things it has to offer, but do so critically. There is something not quite right about what is being served.
lottie_morgan's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
everything_was_beautiful's review
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0