Going Mad? By Michael Corry and Aine Tubridy. New Leaf 2001, €14.50

Have you ever thought you were going mad? Ever questioned your sanity? Hated yourself so much that you wanted to end it all? Felt your life crippled by fear, panic and depression? Lost control over your own mind?

This ground-breaking work addresses many people's unspoken concerns about what we call mental illness and the associated stigma. It questions mainstream arguments, instead placing consciousness, thoughts, emotions and experiences as the creators of psychological distress and dis-ease states.The authors take a strikingly unusual approach to dealing with the subject. Definitely a useful read for the general reader or for any health care worker who wants to better understand mental ‘illness'.

It is divided into three sections. The first explores the idea of madness as an essentially common human mind experience, the acceptability of all mental symptoms if we are to integrate our sometimes traumatic life experiences, and the difficulty caused by the non-acceptance of these symptoms by society.

Section two demystifies psychiatric labels, instead speaking plainly about normal psychological distress as a response to multi-causal and complex situations. These conditions are presented as understandable responses that are experienced as a result of traumatic or difficult life situations and are described in terms of points along a soul's journey, to be healed and transformed. The present psychiatric health care system fails many in this regard. Woven through the book are gripping case histories which, as they unravel, are discussed at several stages by a panel which includes a lay person, a psychotherapist, a conventional psychiatrist, an energy worker, a spiritual healer, and a homeopath. The case studies, drawn from their clinical experience, vividly describe the journey into madness, clearly documenting what happens and what doesn't, in states such as schizophrenia, mania, obsessive-compulsive disorders, depression and panic attacks.

In the last section a new model for healing is presented, based on acceptance and forgiveness. This healing model includes awareness of the chakra system in healing, the future integration of past life knowledge, psychotherapy, homeopathy and, sometimes, prescription of psychoactive drugs where absolutely necessary, for the least amount of time.

The book is well written. Its easy style, together with the concept of the panel discussion, makes it very accessible even though it deals with sometimes difficult concepts. Tubridy and Corry see consciousness and psychotherapy as central to the healing process and draw on homeopathy, the chakra system and spirituality, in order to restore balance and heal the patterns found in psychological distress. In doing so they have endeavoured to redefine healing within psychiatry, and to push the boundaries of what is possible.

Their aim is to make madness understandable and inseparable from the experience of being human. This vital view firmly puts the life-force and soul back into the healing process, where it belongs.

Ann-Marie Larkin

 Available from most good bookshops or from www.gillmacmillan.ie