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A review by astrocourt
Sane New World: Taming The Mind by Ruby Wax
3.0
The book: Sane New World: Taming the Mind
The author: Ruby Wax, comedian, writer and "poster girl for mental illness in the UK", according to her author blurb. She also has a Masters degree in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy.
The subject: A combination of Wax's personal experiences, information about mental illness and the brain more generally and mindfulness/CBT exercises, with a heavy dose of humour.
Why I chose it: I like hearing different people's perspectives on mental illness, particularly when they have experienced it themselves.
The rating: Two and a half out of five stars
What I thought of it: This book was a bit disappointing. I'm a big believer in both using humour to talk about mental illness and looking at the biology behind it, but I'm not sure if Ruby Wax did how I think it should be done. All the different elements just add up to a weird mix of potentially interesting things.
First, the humour. I found some of it to be quite mean-spirited, which I don't think is the point of using humour to deal with things at all. I'm not sure I'd want Wax to be my therapist. (I do have to credit her, though, for the term "musturbation", meaning must/should/ought statements.) Second, the "science bit", and something a bit less subjective. One thing that really stood out to me was the complete lack of a references section or even a list of recommended books. On page 59 she gives a whole list of facts, which is fine, except there are no citations whatsoever. This would be fine if she were just writing her story and opinions, but a selling point of the book is her qualification and resulting expertise, so it just seems a bit off.
About discrimination against people with mental health conditions in the workplace she says, "it should be against the law, just as it is with someone physically disabled". Apparently she didn't get taught the Disability Discrimination Act at Oxford, which is rather worrying if that course is all you need to become a therapist. I know it's harder to make claims for mental rather than physical impairments, but that's not the same as not being protected by the law.
There are a ton of exercises in the final part of the book, which I think could be useful, though I still feel they've been done better elsewhere, in the Overcoming series for example. Wax's book is aiming for something very different to that series, of course, but again, her expertise is meant to be a key part of this book.
I have another gripe with this book, or more accurately famous people talking about medical intervention in general. Often they talk about therapy as something you can just go and do, without considering the fact that the majority of people reading will be relying on the NHS to put them on a waiting list for months resulting in a short course of therapy, and that staying in a hospital isn't necessarily going to result in comfortable recuperation. It really annoys me because these are the people in more of a position to change things, but they just ignore so many people's experiences.
I would recommend this book if you're interested in mental health or are a fan of Ruby Wax, but I definitely wouldn't make it your first or only port of call for information. It's a moderately enjoyable read, but not quite good enough at any of the individual parts to be a must.
Just one more thing: Here is Wax's TED talk, "What's so funny about mental illness?", which is quite interesting. She suits this format more, I think.
The author: Ruby Wax, comedian, writer and "poster girl for mental illness in the UK", according to her author blurb. She also has a Masters degree in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy.
The subject: A combination of Wax's personal experiences, information about mental illness and the brain more generally and mindfulness/CBT exercises, with a heavy dose of humour.
Why I chose it: I like hearing different people's perspectives on mental illness, particularly when they have experienced it themselves.
The rating: Two and a half out of five stars
What I thought of it: This book was a bit disappointing. I'm a big believer in both using humour to talk about mental illness and looking at the biology behind it, but I'm not sure if Ruby Wax did how I think it should be done. All the different elements just add up to a weird mix of potentially interesting things.
First, the humour. I found some of it to be quite mean-spirited, which I don't think is the point of using humour to deal with things at all. I'm not sure I'd want Wax to be my therapist. (I do have to credit her, though, for the term "musturbation", meaning must/should/ought statements.) Second, the "science bit", and something a bit less subjective. One thing that really stood out to me was the complete lack of a references section or even a list of recommended books. On page 59 she gives a whole list of facts, which is fine, except there are no citations whatsoever. This would be fine if she were just writing her story and opinions, but a selling point of the book is her qualification and resulting expertise, so it just seems a bit off.
About discrimination against people with mental health conditions in the workplace she says, "it should be against the law, just as it is with someone physically disabled". Apparently she didn't get taught the Disability Discrimination Act at Oxford, which is rather worrying if that course is all you need to become a therapist. I know it's harder to make claims for mental rather than physical impairments, but that's not the same as not being protected by the law.
There are a ton of exercises in the final part of the book, which I think could be useful, though I still feel they've been done better elsewhere, in the Overcoming series for example. Wax's book is aiming for something very different to that series, of course, but again, her expertise is meant to be a key part of this book.
I have another gripe with this book, or more accurately famous people talking about medical intervention in general. Often they talk about therapy as something you can just go and do, without considering the fact that the majority of people reading will be relying on the NHS to put them on a waiting list for months resulting in a short course of therapy, and that staying in a hospital isn't necessarily going to result in comfortable recuperation. It really annoys me because these are the people in more of a position to change things, but they just ignore so many people's experiences.
I would recommend this book if you're interested in mental health or are a fan of Ruby Wax, but I definitely wouldn't make it your first or only port of call for information. It's a moderately enjoyable read, but not quite good enough at any of the individual parts to be a must.
Just one more thing: Here is Wax's TED talk, "What's so funny about mental illness?", which is quite interesting. She suits this format more, I think.