Feeding My Ignorance -- Library

After a Rebus binge it is time for a 'serious' book - a return to non-fiction and the excellent Dan Goleman. Looking forward to exploring the "realities" of meditation and popular branches of that like mindfulness.

This book is described as 'comical' and full of 'belly laughs' - hmmm... - I have to admit that although there were many quite funny descriptions, the overall feeling I got from the tales that was told was one of concern about the "state of mind" of many of those written about - on both sides of the "psychopath" wall. The very Catch-22 situation that "Tony" found himself in I think typified the whole book's message.

For me, it highlighted the danger of sticking labels on people on the basis of so-called "objective" and "quantifiable" checklists. No matter how thorough a job is done on capturing as many of the different aspects as possible it is still going to fall short of a holistic view of anyone's personality. It doesn't matter what trait you are measuring, no one is going to come out as completely "X" or completely "not-X" - rather we will have a certain amount of X.

How that affects our character cannot be determined simply by looking at the level of "X" - it is necessary to also factor in the level of "A", "G", "K", "Z" and countless others things that we are unable to 'measure'. So - a thought provoking book - that did little to re-assure me that we are any good at identifying those who are really a "danger to society"!!

Perhaps not the happiest book to read at Christmas!! I wouldn't say that I enjoyed reading this book, but I will say that I am glad I read it. It gives an insight into living with and coping with (or not) depression that I would not have expected. Much of it I already 'knew' intellectually - however having the story told at first hand - straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak - carries a huge amount of impact.

One thing that was particularly insightful was the way that she "mix and match"-ed the therapies and treatments - picking and choosing combinations, parts and wholes that worked for her - and discarding those that didn't. This resonates with my experience in completely different contexts - there is rarely a "silver bullet" that will be suitable for all occasions - even seemingly conflicting ideas can have grains of truth under the right circumstances.

A definite recommend if you want to know what it is like to battle mental illness.

An excellent book - highly recommended. It is, of course also extremely pertinent to my current situation. (see post)

What I really liked was this was not a book that continually said "don't do this", "don't do that" - it is an extremely positive book - concentrating on what you can do to improve your chances in what is a lifelong dance with the possibility of cancer - not just for one or two people, but for most people.