An intriguing memoir that provides an eye-opening perspective on institutionalized medicine.
In her debut memoir, a psychiatrist learns important lessons about physical and mental well-being while dealing with her own illness.
At one point in Carmichael’s engrossing book, she stresses the importance of “finding the right story—that is, understanding the connection between physical symptoms and responses to stress and anxiety,” and this balanced, holistic approach informs the work as a whole. Her own medical odyssey began when she was 30 years old and pregnant with her first child. She noticed a strange tingling in her legs but simply marked it down to her pregnancy. She did the same thing two years later, during her second pregnancy, when she experienced numbness. (“Strange how you can be so wise and fool yourself at the same time,” she writes.) Other symptoms came and went, and she ignored them, until 10 years after the initial symptoms, when it became obvious that something was seriously wrong. After she received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, she began to notice a split between facts and emotions that she explores throughout this book: “While the neurologist looked so pleased at making the diagnosis,” she writes, “he did not seem to notice or care that I was emotionally devastated.” This disconnect prompted Carmichael to explore the psychological aspects of chronic pain and disease, starting with her own. “In retrospect, I can see that I was depressed, but I did not know that then,” she writes. “I could not sleep through the night and had difficulty concentrating, but all I knew was that I felt numb inside.” Using a combination of historical overviews and individual case studies, she effectively illuminates the value of understanding the emotional elements of a patient’s battle with chronic pain. Overall, she effectively points out the personal, almost spiritual, aspects of chronic care, while also stressing the need for more empathy on the part of doctors.
An intriguing memoir that provides an eye-opening perspective on institutionalized medicine.Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1479230402
Page Count: 242
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The year is 1303, and England's King Edward is near bankruptcy as he prepares for another attempt to conquer Scotland. He's eyeing the assets of the Knights Templar—beaten back in their efforts to take the Holy Land but rich in property and money. Several of the Knights have arrived in York from France to reactivate the order's manor in Framlingham. (A member of the order has recently been implicated in a plot to kill the King of France.) In addition, a note has been found at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, threatening King Edward. His longtime troubleshooter Sir Hugh Corbett (The Song of a Dark Angel, 1995, etc.) reluctantly agrees to investigate the threats as well as the macabre events at Framlingham, where a deadly fire has taken the lives of several Knights Templar, including the devout Sir Guido Reverchien, the wise old librarian Brother Odo, and young pastry chef Peterkin. As if that weren't enough, an attempt to kill King Edward is made as he rides in pageantry through York, and Corbett himself barely escapes death at the hands of an assassin later found burned to death in his tavern room. The business of counterfeit coins being circulated and rumors of sodomy among the Templars seem like minor matters by comparison, but in the end they too are resolved, as Corbett, faithful Ranulf at his side, finds a ruthless killer, leaves the King's service, and joyfully heads for reunion with beloved wife Maeve. Almost impossibly dense with characters, intrigue, and incident, embellished by the sights, sounds, and smells of York and environs, described in overpowering detail: This ninth in the series is a chronicle too rich for its own good.
Pub Date: Nov. 20, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14729-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1996
A highly personal and spirited exposÇ of the diet culture by a journalist who has had ample experience with the pressures to be slender. A recovered bulimic, Fraser (who has written for Health, Glamour, and other magazines) has given up the pursuit of thinness and here urges other women to do likewise. In writing this book, she says, ``I became as obsessed with the diet industry as I was, at one time, with dieting.'' It shows. Following a brief look at changing ideals of beauty, she zeroes in on the current cult of thinness and those who promote it. In her enthusiasm, she lumps together Susan Powter, Richard Simmons, and Dean Ornish as ``diet gurus,'' though their credentials and their methods have little in common. However, her look at diet scams such as chromium supplements, herbal remedies, and over-the-counter diet pills is more carefully done and thus more persuasive, as are her reports of visits to a Jenny Craig weight-loss center and to a couple of rather questionable San Franciscoarea diet doctors. Fraser evidently weighs enough to appear to be a legitimate client/patient, and her descriptions of these encounters are eye-openers. Obesity researchers also come under her scrutiny. She asserts that their thinking is distorted by the fact that their funding comes primarily from the diet industry and that their attitudes are shaped by the larger culture's preference for thinness and even—a shaky claim, this—by their own personal weight problems. Her praise is saved for antidiet researchers who take the position that exercise and good nutrition are what counts for health and that weight just doesn't matter. A welcome message for many women, marred somewhat by an excess of zeal. (First serial rights to Glamour; second serial rights to Good Housekeeping; author tour)
Pub Date: Jan. 13, 1997
ISBN: 0-525-93891-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1996
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