A responsible, evenhanded exploration of a highly provocative medical industry.
A comprehensive history and analysis of the practice of psychiatry.
Burns (Social Psychiatry/Oxford Univ.) admits to developing a predilection for the craft of psychoanalysis after his mother suffered a nervous breakdown when he was a teenager and he observed the “enormous difference” her treatments made. Now a practicing psychiatrist, the author attempts a qualitative and personally reflective examination of his livelihood, a medical specialty that, he asserts, has long confused and confounded our culture. In the introduction, Burns pinpoints the main psychiatric illnesses affecting the adult population, and the first chapter, however oddly placed, forms a helpful preparatory primer for those seeking care. The author discusses the field’s origins, from asylum care (the “essential precursors” to modern psychiatry) to the exploration of mental unconsciousness and theories of automatism, psychoanalysis and the fight-or-flight internal battle of soldiers with shell shock. Burns notes how early barbaric psychiatric treatments like insulin-induced comas, surgical leucotomies and aggressive electroconvulsive therapy have all contributed to a perpetually negative slant on the practice, but he remains optimistic about its future and displays and emphasizes the importance of psychiatry as a legitimate, trustworthy medical practice. “Deinstitutionalization” and the blooming popularity of antidepressants, along with advancements in neuroscience, collectively counteract these aspersions. Additionally, Burns shares his own frustrations regarding the “philosophical and ethical contradictions” of delivering professional psychiatric care and argues against the misconstrued belief that the practice is an outmoded hustle. He dexterously synthesizes all of this material into a broad-minded volume which may prove “more descriptive than explanatory” for some but that articulately grasps the past and present modalities of psychiatry. Writes Burns, “[psychiatry] is ‘our necessary shadow’ in that it deals with illnesses that are a part of what we are, not things that just happen to us such as flu or a broken leg.”
A responsible, evenhanded exploration of a highly provocative medical industry.Pub Date: June 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-60598-570-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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