Why Psychosis Is Not So Crazy: A Road Map to Hope and Recovery for Families and Caregivers

by Stijn Vanheule

A respected psychoanalyst and professor offers a new, humanizing perspective on psychosis and how we can effectively respond to mental health crises.Are we all a little crazy? Roughly 15 percent of the population will have a psychotic experience, in which they lose contact with reality. And yet we still often struggle to understand and talk about psychosis. Interactions between people build on the stories they tell each other—stories about the past, about who they are or what they want. In psychosis we can no longer rely on these stories, this shared language. So how should we communicate with someone experiencing reality in a radically different way than we are?    Drawing on his work in psychoanalysis, Stijn Vanheule seeks to answer this question, which carries significant implications for mental health as a whole. With a combination of theory from Freud to Lacan, present-day research, and compelling examples from his own patients and well-known figures such as director David Lynch and artist Yayoi Kusama, he explores psychosis in an engaging way that can benefit those suffering from it as well as the people who care for and interact with them.

Genres: Psychology, Psychiatry, Nonfiction, Psychoanalysis

230 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 17, 2024

Reviews

[Seppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zeer mooi en inspirerend boek dat pleit voor nieuwe erkenning, en een nieuw spreken met personen die kampen met psychosen. Helemaal wars van een psychiatrisch discours. Komt erop neer de moed te hebben om te spreken met de ander, ookal heeft deze in de taal een heel andere logica dan jijzelf. Aanrader

[Corvus · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Can publishers PLEASE STOP labeling academic exercises as "roadmaps," "guides," or as somehow radical texts, etc? This is a psychoanalyst waxing poetic about some pretty conceptual psychoanalysis assessments to speak against biomedical models. Legit reads like an old school book of a guy coming up with ideas without actually consulting anyone else or research and stating them as fact. I was willing to stick with it anyway until I got to his discussion of other animals in which he showed that he not only doesn't understand much research, but he's willing to make sweeping generalizations about things we cannot know about other animals psychology in order to make his points. A lot of this seems very off. I normally like the out-thereness of psychoanalysis and any alternative to the solely biomedical or cognitive models (which have merits and flaws themselves.) This just reads like a psychoanalysis shower thoughts book to me. Maybe I'm being harsh, but I'm tired of looking for resources about people in my life dealing with psychosis and running into mislabeled academic exercises.

[Ari Siikavuopio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anbefaler virkelig ALLE klinikere i psykiatrien eller pårørende å lese denne boka. Den er lett skrevet og forfatteren unngår overdreven bruk av psykoanalytisk sjargong. Boka gir veldig fine alternativer til hvordan vi møter mennesker med psykose og opplevelsene som medfølger.

[Pieter De Wijngaert · Rating 4 out of 5]

In de psychiatrie ligt er een spreekverbod op de waanzin.
Een ode aan bricolage

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wouldn’t call this a road map for families and caregivers but a practitioner’s musings relative to a handful of clients. He describes his clinical lens and approach to better understanding their experience, reading more like Freudian Psychosis 101. Very brief mention of Foucault but missed on opportunities to explore additional systems of oppression that impact mental health.

I hate to give this 2 stars because there’s a need for books that explore psychosis beyond popular western medicine theory but this book is lacking the multidisciplinary, multicultural and intersectional lens families & caregivers would actually benefit from.

[Lore · Rating 4 out of 5]

uitstekende basis!

[Ola]

Rany, jak to się dobrze czytało! Nie oceniam bo to moja pierwsza styczność z literaturą o tym zaburzeniu i żadne mam doświadczenie i porównanie. Ale wow, naprawdę jestem pod wrażeniem, mnóstwo(!) mam zaznaczeń i na pewno będę wracać. Ale nie oceniam też bo jak sam autor zaznacza, opowiada się po jednej ze stron w dyskusji o psychozie - faktycznie mogło to być zbyt jednostronne. Jednak jako książka-ciekawostka na start - absolutnie super! ❤️🥹

[Annelies Falter · Rating 5 out of 5]

"....hoe het gedrag van die woorden..."

[Sabine Hélène · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geschreven in een heldere taal, die zo gekozen lijkt om je vooral toe te laten om te voelen. Taal die je tegelijk groter en kleiner maakt.

[Hayden Greiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear, empathetic, and humanizing Lacanian analysis of one of the most stigmatized conditions

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

*audiobook listener*
I was waiting for the extremely controversial statements that may have made some people dislike the book, but instead I found measured statements people may need to but don’t want to hear.

note: I experienced early psychosis at a young age, which returned in my 20’s, and I appear to be one of the few who medication works well for.

One of the statements people need to but don’t want to hear is that medication doesn’t always work for everybody. Many families and orgs both want to encourage people not to reject meds and want to believe an easy “solution” is available so hardly admit this aloud. But it can become frustrating for families and patients as finding what works for an individual can take years.

What was impressive about the book was, from my perspective, the expert way it conceptualizes the experience of psychosis. I found myself nodding along.
“Yes, exactly. That is what it is like”

The way it also humanizes and makes psychotic experiences relevant for experience in general and connects it to the Lacanian Real is impressive - As long as the listener is open to the ideas. I first heard of “The Real” from youtube essays, and it hit hard and it hit the spot, the description being familiar to my experience after psychosis.

I see why some might not like the book, or might consider it too “conceptual”. There are chapters describing psychotic experiences that can be hard to get through without losing some attention. Sometimes when the book describes psychosis as a mental health crisis of meaning, I wonder about the order of effect. While there were no doubt markers I could now point to preceding my episodes, the episodes present their own crisis. And those experiences shaped me and continue to inform me. I think the idea of how one can be positively informed could have been even more developed. It almost sounds like a warning against gazing into the void if all that awaits there is madness.

I question if any of my friends or family would find this book useful. However it is for those interested in the subject matter, who are open, and who can think broadly and apply the thoughts practically themselves (not expecting the author to answer all the practical questions). For them, this book could be enlightening.

If I can get family or friends to read this, perhaps I will report back

[Quentin Ferrari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't be objective. Definitely a worthwhile book, however repetitive, overly speculative, standardly-written, and poorly titled (the main title is almost clickbaitish and it is not a road map) this can be. Some interesting reflections on Joyce and other avant-garde artists here -- which was a pleasant surprise -- alongside great framing of psychosis as a linguistic/narrative event, an interesting discussion about types of thinking, and the only description of Lacan's imaginary/symbolic/real triad that I've ever really understood. Really heavy Lacanian theory focus. There's an odd sense that Stidgin van Hulahoop here is trying to write for Lacan scholars in a pop-psychology way. There's lots to learn from here, especially if you've experienced psychosis or make avant-garde art as I have/do. But I can't imagine most "casual" readers climbing through the Lacan, however accessible. Still, 4 stars from me.

[Blaze-Pascal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This completes my trilogy on books on psychosis.
The first book of this trilogy is Carl Jung's Red Book. I would characterize this as the psychotics guide to psychosis.
The second book is Stijn Vanheule's earlier book on psychosis, the subject of psychosis. I would characterize this as the Pervert's Guide to Psychosis. And I will include any readings on psychosis from Jacques Lacan's Écrits in this category too.
This is the third book, and I recommend beginning with this book as I think I read the juicy parts in the other two versions already, and this I would characterize as the Neurotic's Guide to Psychosis. It's the most easily digestible of the series. I mean he gives a definition of the unconscious in the first chapter. So, as the title suggests, give this to your families and caregivers, friends, other neurotics you live with. There's things here for them to digest. It's like Mari Ruti's Call of Character but from a clinical psychoanalyst who specializes in psychosis.

[Sorcha McCarrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

i was skeptical abt the approach favored by this book. the subject is, to me, irreducible, and i was concerned that the author seemed invested in making psychosis neat and cuddly when it is in reality an entropic swamp. however, i will say he managed his goal and did not altogether neglect the more mysterious aspects of psychosis as I feared he would. still, i found myself wanting to dwell in the mystic attics of Jung's reflections, and rly everything surrounding the final section re: The Unexplainable a bit more than the treatment did here. an ultimately approachable and engaging read that should do more for practitioners and family members than anyone who has had a significant psychotic experience. cr*zy ppl: we're just like you! except for all the ways we are not lol

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wat een worsteling om doorheen te komen, ontzettend wollig geschreven. Het lijkt een soort niet te onderdrukken neiging van Vlaamse auteurs te zijn om om de alinea een of andere filosoof aan te halen, wat dan net niks toevoegt. Na het lezen van dit boek weet je niet veel meer over psychose dan ervoor.

[Shawn Vizgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found it very helpful for my work with psychotic patients, however it is more useful from a theoretical level vs being helpful for families or dealing with more complex complications of severe psychotic presentations (risks of suicide or violence for instance)

[Tis_demborre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helder, maar te veel herhaling

[Captain Absurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too much Lacan for my taste, but otherwise a pleasant read. I also liked the central metaphor of the human mind as a film set. It's a shame it's only 240 pages long!

[Finn van Batenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niets vernieuwend in dit boek, maar is en blijft een mooie manier om naar psychoses te kijken.

[Poetabridged · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished this back in November. It was insightful

[James Mol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant - very interesting and useful!

[Amy Norman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gentle introduction of Lacanian viewpoint