Self Help Books

Over the years I have been given these to read by well meaning friends and relations. I have just checked Amazon and they are all still available. These are my thoughts about them.

“Self help for your nerves”: Claire Weeks.
Although I had experienced (and managed to keep hidden) two episodes of “Adult”* depression by then, during 1978 I suffered my first “Breakdown” requiring medical intervention. An Aunt who had herself experienced “Nervous Breakdown” sent me a copy of this book because she had found it helpful.

I guess this is where the difference between “Nervous Breakdown” and “Clinical Depression” showed. All the book did for me was to “prove” to me that I was, and always had been “Mad”, when, I skimmed the self-help suggestions because I was incapable of carrying out her suggestions, thus boosting my feelings of inadequacy, and focused on the section that outlined the symptoms of the various psychiatric illnesses.

I learned a valuable lesson here and throughout my “counselling” and “social work” roles always offered clients who I thought might benefit a list of books which they could dip into in the library before making their own choice about which was most beneficial to them. The “right” book, like the right therapy, is a very subjective thing, and I believe that, as with the latter, clients must feel comfortable with what is offered if they are to derive real benefit and growth.

* I distinguish the difference between my “Child” and “Adult” Depression as being the point at which I realised my fate was in my own hands and my “death wish” changed from “I wish I was dead” to “How can I kill myself”.

“The Power of Positive Thinking”: Norman Vincent Peale.
The Seventies and Early Eighties saw the rise of Behavioural and Cognitive therapies in the U.K. They were the only treatments available on the NHS because it was claimed that “outcomes” could be measured while the outcomes of “talking” therapies could not. (I disagree with both of these assertions, as you will see when I post my “Models of treatment” section).
The professionals I was referred to during this period kept dropping me the term “positive thinking” so when I saw this book I was drawn to it.

Written from a Christian perspective it, (in the way AA does with addiction), encourages the reader to replace their negative thoughts with religion.
Because of my alienation from organised religion I found many of the concepts and strategies in the book unpalatable, particularly as it seemed to advocate manipulating the Christian ethic for personal gain (see footnote). It did however give me two Mantra’s from scripture that I still use to boost my confidence during periods of stability.

These are: -
“I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me” and “If God be for me who can be against me”.

Footnote: Horses for courses.
I had a mature student, a very devout Christian who had internalised the “humility” aspects of the faith to an extent that was detrimental to him. To pay his way through the course he was allowing his willingness to please to be exploited by two unscrupulous employers and he would never promote himself forward in the classroom. This led some lecturers to define him as lazy and others to perceive him as timid and unlikely to pass the oral components of the course.
As a “tutorial” task I got him to précis this book for me. As I had hoped he took on the message that being a good Christian does not mean being a doormat. It was wonderful to see him coming out from beneath “Christian” shell.

“I could not catch the bus today” David Lazell
Loaned to me by a friend during my agoraphobic period this book also advocates the application of Christianity as a solution to the problem.
All it did for me was to reinforce my feelings of inadequacy, as I was unable to effect the same changes in myself.

The books that have been most helpful to me in understanding both my illness and my behaviour are those I found in the College Library, when, following my period of intensive therapy in a psycho-dynamic therapeutic community, I got my self well enough to gain employment in professional social work and then to be sponsored for the Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (CQSW) course.

These are:
“On Becoming A Person”: Carl Rogers.
In addition to helping my self understanding (and self forgiveness) this book and the “Client Centred Therapy” that Rogers advocates in his counselling books, seemed to validate my self constructed Christian living model and provided me with a “Humanistic” philosophy on everyday living that I could utilise.

“The Divided Self”: R.D.Laing.
Mainly an exploration of Schizophrenia, and much harder reading than the other books here, I took from this and Laing’s other writings the concept of Social Constructed mental illness. It offered me insight to those aspects of my personality that others were attributing to my illness but which I knew were just attributes of my own personality that were different to the accept norm.

“The Psychology of Personal Constructs”: George A Kelly.
The first cognitive based philosophy that made sense to me, mainly because it looks at the way people think without making tenuous links to the animal kingdom. Further understanding of some of my thought patterns to link with humanistic values I had acquired.

“Asylums”: Erving Goffman.
Insight to the way the system had abused me (confirmation that my illness was not responsible for some of my negative thoughts about “the system” as I had been encouraged to think by those perpetrating the abuse), and insight to the ways I had utilised the fear of my illness to abuse myself.
I became such a fan of Goffman that my Sociology tutor urged me to publish the essay I wrote applying his theories to my own professional and personal experiences.
As my lecturer, Prof. Clem Adleman, was a friend of his, and had discussed Goffman’s ideas with him first hand, this gave my confidence the greatest boost it had received since the days of Margot Theophilus (see Creative Writing 1).
I intend bringing the Essay up to date by including my experiences since 1990 but in the meantime I will post the original here (see Goffman) for any of you who might wish to read it.

“Mr God This Is Anna” Fynn.
I was given his amazing, delightful, wonderful book by a friend. It proved to me once and for all that there are many ways of enjoying the life of Christ and of putting his teaching into practice, without the dogma of organised religion. I return to it time and time again and find that the world it describes and the characters who come alive through the writers love and skill can make me laugh and cry each time with the same freshness as very the first reading.

Luv Bri