To Wrestle With Demons: A Psychiatrist Struggles to Understand His Patients and Himself - Softcover

A young psychiatrist examines his responses to his first years on the job in these essays, originally published in the Washington Post . As a resident in an unidentified Boston hospital, Ablow tells us about his patients, colleagues and supervisors with youthful, though measured, enthusiasm and in direct prose uncluttered by jargon. A woman comes to the mental health clinic with a mystifying symptom: her feet feel as if they're burning. She and Ablow discover the sensation originated when her grandson went to Saudi Arabia to serve in Desert Storm. Surprised during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings to hear a respected male psychiatrist make a blatantly sexist remark about a female resident, Ablow notes that even in supposedly enlightened psychiatric circles, sexism continues to "smolder underground." Other subjects include the use of electro-shock therapy and drugs in treatment. Ablow's main topic remains the individuals he sees, and in the connections he forged with them he finds proof of his belief that "we are much more alone than we need to be."
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This book is a collection of short essays that originally appeared in the Washington Post , discussing a number of topics, such as electroshock therapy, the controversial antidepressant Prozac, the problems of the homeless, and the dynamics of the patient/therapist relationship. Ablow is a fine writer, but despite the book's subtitle, we learn little about him or his patients. Sometimes a collection of newspaper articles becomes more than the sum of its parts, but in this case the result feels thin. Public libraries that do not keep back issues of the Washington Post and are not too strapped for cash (if such exist) may want to consider this title; others can wait for this promising author to write a "real" book.
- Mary Ann Hughes, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.