Into the Abyss: A Neuropsychiatrist's Notes on Troubled Minds

by Anthony David

We cannot know how to fix a problem until we understand its causes. But even for some of the most common mental health problems, specialists argue over whether the answers lie in the person’s biology, their psychology or their circumstances.

As a cognitive neuropsychiatrist, Anthony David brings together many fields of enquiry, from social and cognitive psychology to neurology. The key for each patient might be anything from a traumatic memory to a chemical imbalance, an unhealthy way of thinking or a hidden tumour.

Patrick believes he is dead. Jennifer's schizophrenia medication helped with her voices but did it cause Parkinson’s? Emma is in a coma – or is she just refusing to respond?

Drawing from Professor David’s career as a clinician and academic, these fascinating case studies reveal the unique complexity of the human mind, stretching the limits of our understanding.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Science, Neuroscience, Medicine, Medical

224 pages, Hardcover

First published February 6, 2020

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very good. Most neurologists and psychologists concentrate on presenting cases with the person being the sufferer of the disorder. Oliver Sacks's angle was he and his patient would be in this exciting adventure together of investigating just what had gone wrong in the brain that was causing all this weird behaviour.

This author, Anthony David, is even more about the person and their life and how it, the whole life rather than their disorder-caused behaviour, is affected. It's very interesting. You really get to know the people and see them as quite separate from their disease, much as you would someone who, for example, uses crutches to help them walk. The crutches aren't terribly important but it's awfully interesting hearing about how it affects their life compared to yours and not necessarily what you thought at all.

Unlike a lot of psychiatrists/psychologists and neurologists, he is not wedded to a particular form of treatment. He considers the sociological aspects of a person's life and how they might have contributed to their fall into the abyss of bleak mental health and treats each person with compassion and whatever he thinks will help them - therapy, counselling for their real-life problems or medication, or a combination. The seven stories he relates aren't all successful, but are all interesting and would be even if they weren't in a subject I like, because his writing would make even the proverbial telephone directory interesting. Hmm, do we still have telephone directories?

[Nina (ninjasbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author want to describe different mental health issues by using case studies. For those unfamiliar with common diagnosis, the book might be really interesting and enlightening, but for me there just wasn’t much I hadn’t heard before. The second part of the book were more interesting though, I didn’t want to skip anything.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a terrifying book! The writer begins by expressing his commitment to science and empiricism, and his belief in a ‘biopsychosocial’ approach to mental illness that weaves together three strands- biology, psychology and sociology. Frankly, this seems to boil down to no more than a Whac-A-Mole model of psychiatry in which when a symptom appears, be it biological, psychological, or sociological, just whack it. The book presents different cases from the doctor’s many years of practice, but it comes over as a very poor man’s Oliver Sachs, providing all the fascination of the case and yet none of the insight. At one point we are presented with one patient who goes into a catatonic stupor, a state characterized by a marked decrease in response to stimuli with the patient remaining motionless and rigid. The doctor leans over her and says

“You’re safe now. I think you got like this because you stopped all your medication. Once you get back on it you will start to feel better. I promise.”

Not exactly the level of explanation that brings comfort to the sufferer or their close family. It is this lack of depth that characterizes the whole book. It frightens me that it is being promoted as a new advance in psychiatry. The book is right to ask the question of why we attach so much stigma to mental illness, but does little to improve matters, and most likely makes them worse.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using extended anecdotal case studies, Anthony David gives us insights into psychotic catatonia, depersonalisation disorder, terminal depression, hypomania, eating disorder, pervasive refusal disorder and conversion disorder. These are all conditions that can end up in hospitalisation.

Listing the syndromes is a little meaningless here since David (who writes fluently and sensitively) is far better at describing their complexity in his easy to read chapters than any reviewer. A theme emerges though - the individual's determination to be what something internal thinks they are.

Whether the rational will wants what happens or not, something deep within the minds of his eight individuals (two are covered under conversion disorder) resulted in behaviours that may be self-destructive or limiting but which have their own rationale based on their own conditions of life.

It seems to be David's job to understand that rationale and tease out what is a matter of bodily dysfunction (perhaps biochemical or neurological), what is psychological and what arises from equally complex social conditions.

What makes this a sometimes disturbing and often sad book a cut above other medical memoirs is David's own open-mindedness, his refusal to succumb to abstract theory, his evident deep respect for his patients and his honest admission of errors of judgement and failures.

The impression one gets is that, in the world of neuropsychiatry, progress is generally possible but not certain and that there is no magic bullet. In many cases, it is may be a case of triggering patients to press their own restart button. In others, no solution seems to work.

It is not a political book but David is sensitive to bureaucratic failures, to social problems, to the problems presented to people of different races to the dominant one and to the role of sexual abuse in triggering later mental cases. He can show anger at the health system's failures.

The book had a slight personal cast to me of 'there but for the grace of God'. Having come from a thoroughly dysfunctional family, I had a 'mental crisis' of my own around the age of 19 and was 'saved' only by an exceptionally kind tutor and effective oversight at university.

Three of the areas covered by David, I have actually experienced - extreme depersonalisation, suicidal depression and conversion - and the latter two were to extend in 'batches' for decades after, the depression lessening appreciably over time.

In my case, there was no evidence of physiological issues and it was easy (more in hindsight than at the time) to see what happened as arising from a complex mix of possible genetic predisposition and personal issues with the way I had ended up in the world without adequate autonomy.

My life has been the story of getting back on the right rail line after being sent down the wrong one with repeated wrong points decisions by the Fat Controller of existence from that point one. I may be at the right station now with all my mental baggage intact but I've arrived rather late.

Even today, my body deals with crises largely by exhibiting an ailment which mimics something serious but never is (in fact, I am exceptionally healthy for my age) while depersonalisation has converted itself into a hard-edged detachment about the world that now rather suits me.

This book reminded me just how bad things might have gotten if I had not both been who I am at core and been surrounded by people who cared who I was (albeit briefly initially) but also that progress is possible through a life. My life now is an exceptionally good one. There is hope.

In some ways, my mental crisis 'made me'. It gave me the tools not to repeat the mistakes of my birth culture with my own children. I certainly recognised the experience of 'Caitlin' whose 'eating disorder' was an expression of herself in transition to happiness. I felt closest to her perhaps.

But the failures are equally interesting. The most notable to me was the suicide of a man from a religious and culturally contained background who clearly had no desire to lose his religion but did so. David will not speculate but loss of identity based on a sustaining culture can be devastating.

His case was the opposite of mine. I needed to get away from a culture in order to become autonomous. This man (though one must not speculate) appeared to find the actuality of an unwelcome autonomy so terrifying that death was preferable. Two brains wired up differently.

In my case, coming from a hard line Catholic family, my 'crisis' was triggered (though this was not the cause) definitively by a chapter in a book describing how Augustine took up the brutal repression of the Donatists (an obscure part of early church history). How odd you may say!

What happened was, in effect, a terrible clash between the claims to goodness of the Church and its actual behaviours that expressed the tension between my own inherent atheist existentialism (it is who I am) and the rigid expectations of an abusive (I only later found out how much) family.

Until that reading, I had had told to me what 'good' was and I knew something was wrong about that but I was never faced with something that undermined that claim so clearly as I was that day. It was an accident waiting to happen. Many other minds may be accidents waiting to happen.

David's book has other examples of mental collapse being triggered by an 'incident' that reflects a dysfunctional reality to that person - most notably his case of pervasive refusal disorder (where a person effectively shuts down their body while the mind and even the will are intact).

The book is a light read but there is much to provoke thought. It might help the wider public to understand the complexity of mental collapse and (as David emphasises) the way the body, mind and society interact to bring down humans as functionally effective creatures.

He is not foolish enough to offer false hope but he does show a number of ways out of the impasse for healthcare professionals, individuals and their families, based (I believe) on the right balance of respect between individual autonomy and physical and mental techniques to trigger change.

Some conditions are always going to be a matter of drugs and facing the reality of the brain being wired in a certain way or there being some neurological disorder or, of course, disease. Those that are not may be amongst the most challenging for the psychiatrist, where science fails.

The book might also be a thoughful read for the psychotherapy profession. Their cases are 'neurotic' rather than 'psychotic' but I suspect that they could learn from some of the active triggering for transformation thar helps in some of David's cases.

Having gone through the mill myself, I found psychotherapy palliative and initially useful but its detached techniques the worst possible way of dealing with detachment in the long run. What was needed was the risk of triggering change through engagement.

I suspect psychotherapeutic detachment is the 'safe' option because 'triggering' change could go either way so they sit and sit and sit and we talk and talk and talk and the cash register goes ker-ching but the real changes take place outside the consulting room.

This is not to argue against psychotherapy. It meets a social need much as priests have done. It is perhaps effective and comforting in most cases but it is slow. time-expensive, ritualistic and the bulk of it cannot handle existential issues, especially if the client is brighter than the counsellor.

At some stage perhaps, psychotherapy has to move on from its twentieth century origins and risk-averse methods and start thinking about active engagement in diagnosis, referral, social conditions and speeding up the triggers for change by involving itself in value discussions.

Perhaps alongside the parish priests of local psychotherapy, someone very bright and committed might listen to what the neuropsychiatrists are telling us (and the sociologists) and come up with a more dynamic equivalent for the tougher cases - a sort of Psycho-Jesuit Order.

But what do I know?

[Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

David writes from the perspective of both a neur0scientist and a practicing psychiatrist’s perspective about a number of challenging patients he has treated. When most lay people think about mental ill-health, they look for easy answers as to causes – social media, sexual abuse, drugs, poverty, wealth, feminism, religion, or its lack, the list goes on. He thinks modern psychiatry should include all of these under the category of sociology. But he offers two other categories, that of psychology ( talking, counseling) and biology (neuroscience). The job of a neuropsychiatrist, then, is to decide which of these categories, or a combination, is most important in treating cases.

The book is divided into seven chapters, each describing in general terms a patient who has gone “into the abyss” of some form of mental illness. He first discusses the use of anti psychotic drugs, first discovered in the l1950’s, one case being a young woman who became schizophrenic and catatonic, even after taking various drugs. Part of the problem was that she didn’t always take them as prescribed. He achieved some success with her through a long process of getting to know her personally and encouraging her artistic efforts. In this case, a form of intensive counseling was needed as well as medication.

Another case involved recovery from a severe brain injury caused by an accident. Recovery was very slow and the patient became angry because he didn’t get back to his pre-injury self. Again, no miracle recovery, but a long process of changing his expectations of what he was capable of. Along the same line, he writes of treating a severe depressive who ended by taking his own life. In this case David was unable to get this individual to re-imagine a future he’d want to live. Drugs didn’t help.

A directly sociological problem occurred with a woman suffering from anorexia. David writes, “The overweight and obese are one of the most reviled groups on earth, even though they are quickly becoming the majority.” In her case, her revulsion to this group was complicated by sexual abuse and death of a close family member. Again, the overt medical issue was complicated by personal history, and without this knowledge, treatment was ineffectual.

Not all of his examples end in success. Besides the suicide, another “failure” is that of a woman who just wastes away for no discernible reason, and simply doesn’t respond to any treatment.

He concludes by stating that there is a “tapestry of meanings woven into language and culture” that goes beyond an objective scientific explanation of human maladies,. Medical practitioners, in addition to objective medical procedures, need to read and understand the patterns woven into the tapestries individual lives. Seemingly an obvious approach, but for many reasons, such as cost and time involved, is often forgotten.

[Luca Ambrosino · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENGLISH (Into the abyss) / ITALIANO

People suffering from schizophrenia have high levels of dopamine, while Parkinson's disease is characterized by the lack of dopamine. Well, Jennifer is a 35 year old girl affected by both diseases. Patrick, following a bicycle accident, no longer recognizes the world around him, argues that his wife is now different, and that he also has changed, to the point thinking to be dead and living in an uncertain limbo. And again: depression arose without any apparent reason which leads towards suicide, bipolarism of a subject convinced of being subjected to racial prejudice, psychological problems arising from physical appearance or from the relationship with food, electroshock as a remedy against inanition and catatonia.

Seven anomalous clinical cases presented by neuropsychiatrist Anthony David. A very interesting and stimulating essay, which introduced me to some disorders that I knew in a marginal manner, or that I did not know at all.

Vote: 7,5

“La prima volta che ho incontrato Jennifer era in un reparto di terapia intensiva, sdraiata sul letto, immobile.”

Persone affette da schizofrenia presentano alti livelli di dopamina, mentre il morbo di Parkinson è caratterizzato dalla carenza di dopamina. Ebbene Jennifer è una trentacinquenne colpita da entrambe le patologie. Patrick, in seguito ad un incidente in bicicletta, non riconosce più il mondo attorno a lui, sostiene che la moglie è diversa, vede cambiato anche se stesso, al punto da ritenersi morto e di essere in una sorta di limbo. Ed ancora: depressione insorta senza motivo apparente che porta al suicidio, bipolarismo di un soggetto convinto di subire pregiudizi razziali, problemi psicologici derivanti dal proprio aspetto o dal proprio rapporto con il cibo, elettroshock come rimedio per l'inedia e la catatonia.

Sette casi clinici "anomali" presentati dal neuropsichiatra Anthony David. Un saggio molto molto interessante e stimolante, che mi ha fatto conoscere alcune patologie che conoscevo in maniera marginale o che non conoscevo per niente.

Voto: 7,5

[ninakrzyzanowska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Po prostu niesamowite.
Pozycja, która jest bardzo ogólnym i jakże fascynującym wprowadzeniem w dziedzinę neuropsychiatrii.
Opisuje konkretnych pacjentów z dosyć nietuzinkowymi dolegliwościami oraz ich proces leczenia (lub nie).
Każda strona książki wprowadzała mnie w większe zaciekawienie i podekscytowanie.

[anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generalnie bardzo interesujące historie pacjentów, dużo przypisów i wyjaśnień. Z niektórymi nazwami oraz określeniami spotkałam się po raz pierwszy, ale sama je sobie wyszukiwałam i dzięki temu dowiedziałam się czegoś nowego. Jednak w niektórych historiach brakowało mi jakiegoś podsumowania, wniosków, chociaż krótkiego zakończenia rozdziału, bo czułam nagłe urwanie tematu.

[Klaudia_p · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mózg to jednak fascynujący organ.

[Lucas Ong · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book felt disorganized. I can’t really be upset too much as it’s “notes on troubled minds”. I expected more of a scientific explanation yet I was found with anecdotal experiences. Small case studies were used to try to tackle the question is mental illness a disease of the brain or the mind problem.

[Fede La Lettrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

• Sette casi clinici che rivelano la complessità dei disturbi neuropsichiatrici. Il saggio si distingue per la sua capacità di intrecciare scienza e narrazione, offrendo un ritratto delle persone dietro le diagnosi e delle sfide che affrontano.

• David descrivere i sintomi, i trattamenti, e costruisce una narrazione intima che esplora la sofferenza e il disorientamento dei suoi pazienti.

• Lo stile è accessibile senza risultare banalizzante, la scrittura trasmette empatia senza cadere nel pietismo. In alcuni momenti, il saggio assume persino le sembianze di un romanzo, con episodi che evocano tensione e coinvolgimento emotivo.

• Però c'è un però: non tutti i capitoli mantengono lo stesso livello di intensità, alcuni casi risultano più affascinanti di altri, e in certi punti il tono si avvicina troppo a un racconto aneddotico, con l’autore che sembra concedersi qualche divagazione di troppo. Inoltre, chi cerca un approfondimento tecnico sulle patologie trattate potrebbe trovare il testo più narrativo che scientifico.

• "Un'imitazione" non riuscitissima di Sacks

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sette casi clinici, sette persone la cui vita è stata marchiata in modo indelebile da un disturbo, neurologico o psichiatrico, diverso dal "normale". Un uomo convinto che sua moglie sia stata rimpiazzata da una sosia (e che nessuno intorno a lui sia reale), una donna che aveva contemporaneamente Parkinson e schizofrenia, una strana manifestazione di depressione grave, e altri casi affascinanti e stravaganti, per cui non sempre l'autore, in qualità di neuropsichiatra, è riuscito a trovare una spiegazione.

Un saggio sacksiano, appassionante, di facile comprensione anche per chi non è pratico dell'ambiente. David infatti lascia brevi spiegazioni per il lettore riguardo le patologie di cui fa cenno mentre descrive le storie dei suoi pazienti. Nonostante il vantaggio della "semplicità" anche per chiunque non sia del settore, avrei apprezzato ancora di più se le varie sindromi e le terapie fossero state approfondite più nello specifico dal lato scientifico.

Davvero affascinante, lo consiglio a chiunque sia incuriosito e interessato all'ambito neuropsichiatrico!

[Michael Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and moving, but written in a rather stilted style and not offering enough explanation of the syndromes described. Mr David is obviously a wonderful clinician but perhaps not as good a writer as he is a doctor.

[Milena · Rating 4 out of 5]

W świetny sposób opisane, udane lub nieudane próby "wyleczenia" i pomocy pacjentom cierpiącym na wszelkie zaburzenia psychiczne i neurologiczne, tworzące spójną całość. Polecam wszystkim zainteresowanym tematyką psychiatrii i neuropsychologii.

[Iris Giovannini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sette storie terribili ma affascinanti raccontate da un neuropsichiatra che personalmente mi hanno colpita molto e mi hanno insegnato tante cose sulla nostra psiche umana . Uno dei piu belli mai letti

[Mitchell Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

These vignettes, the personal histories, and Prof David’s explanations of complex phenomena and illnesses were all so humane and interesting. Really did feel encouraged to work with empathy and knowledge to reach across the abyss - a resounding and true call to work towards understanding. Really enjoyed the dynamic, historical, and biological aspects of this understanding. Was a bit technical in parts and probably wouldn’t recommend to someone without some prior reading into psychiatric illness.

[Sandra Leszczyńska · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dość ciekawe case study przypadków, natomiast dla laików totalnie brakuje trochę teorii, czy też podsumowań.

[Gabriela Kutkowska · Rating 2 out of 5]

Książka ma dość chaotyczną formułę, autor opisuje kilka zaburzeń na podstawie casów swoich pacjentów, rozkłada je na czynniki pierwsze, opisuje na czym dane zaburzenie polega. Dość ciekawe, ale nic odkrywczego. Dodatkowo raziło mnie nadużywanie w książce słowa „upośledzony” (mam wydanie z 2020 roku), autor lub tłumacz na język polski zapomniał o inkluzywności języka.
Ktoś nazwał autora zastępcą Olivera Sacksa - czy my czytaliśmy dwie inne książki? Bo ja po tej książce na pewno bym go tak nie nazwała

[Aisha (thatothernigeriangirl) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is remarkable, weird as that sounds 😄
And even though the first few pages were really slow, I throughly enjoyed every single account.
Full review to come

Edit Full Review

The 20th century philosopher, Karl Jaspers, described the struggles to understand the whys and hows of mental illnesses (and disorders) as an “abyss” and this book, is Davis’s attempt to take us along on the journey of understanding the different “abysses” he has encountered in the course of his career as a neuropsychiatrist.

One poignant feature of this book is how it prove to us, repeatedly, that mental disorders are constellation of several factors— ranging from biochemical to social and psychological. And more importantly, that for every case a professional is able to pinpoint a cause for, there are several others that are left ‘unsolved’ — if that isn’t the very manifestation of “abysses”!

You know how people, privileged people really, like to say that everything isn’t about “race or class or gender”, well, unsurprisingly, those three things contribute to some of these disorders as well as whether or not the patients get required treatments (there was a particular case that was especially disturbing in how the authorities handled the patient’s treatment).

If you aren’t familiar with neuropsychiatric terms, don’t worry too much as David went the extra mile to make sure that the average reader understands and relate to the case studies highlighted in the book. I also admire how honest he was in detailing some of his mistakes during the course of his career and how he only grew better for that.
Into the Abyss is a thoroughly enjoyable book and I came away from it understating the human mind a little better.

[Anne Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating anecdotes from a thoughtful, compassionate neuropsychiatrist - gently but rather terrifyingly demonstrating the messiness and impreciseness of the field. Brains are weird, man! Many of the cases here are not tied up neatly with a bow - no happy ‘House’ style endings here. But the stories gave me much to consider and all fall awkwardly somewhere largely unknown on the mind-brain/biological-psychological-social continuum.

WaPo review here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outloo...

[Scribd]

[Simona~ pagine_e_inchiostro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recensione a cura della pagina instagram Pagine_e_inchiostro:
Nell’abisso richiama qualcosa di visibile, ma in parte al di fuori della portata scientifica: l’abisso della nostra insondabile mente.
Tra apporto genetico ed influenza ambientale, é quasi impossibile definire l’origine del germe della follia. Eppure la follia é sempre più comune, sempre più intorno a noi.

Ecco quindi sette casi clinici, di cui il neuropsichiatra Anthony David ci mostra tanto la parte scientifica, quanto quella umana. Pazienti che per lui sono anche e soprattutto persone.
Dal paziente con la sindrome di Cotard, alla paziente che ha sviluppato sia il morbo di Parkinson sia la schizofrenia, fino alla paziente con disturbi dell’alimentazione dovuti alle aspettative sociali, é sempre la mente (con tutte le sue complessità) ad emergere tra queste pagine.

Si toccano anche tematiche sociali delicate, ugualmente correlate a come la mente le elabora e trasforma, quali il razzismo e la misoginia. Ma non solo: si parla di terapia psichiatra e di biomedicina: dalle terapie più comuni e tradizionali, all’elettroshock, fino alla più moderna stimolazione magnetica transcranica.

Chi ha amato Sacks, il pioniere di questo genere di saggistica, amerà senza dubbio anche David, seppur il secondo adotti talvolta un linguaggio più tecnico e meno abbordabile rispetto al primo.

[fedetrailibri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saggio di formazione sui disturbi mentali che narra l’esperienza diretta dell’autore (neuropsichiatra).
Molto interessanti le storie dei pazienti, molte finiscono bene altre purtroppo no e ti rimane l’amaro in bocca, soprattutto dopo aver letto tutta la loro storia e quanto abbiano lottato.
Aspetto negativo: molto (ma davvero tanto) scientifico, ci sono pagine e pagine di definizioni, terminologie e spiegazioni puramente mediche e psicologiche. A tratti riuscivo a seguire solo ed unicamente grazie ai miei studi universitari ma spesso mi perdevo e rendevano la lettura pesante.
Se uno è appassionato di psicologia e medicina consiglio vivamente!

[Martina Valentino · Rating 4 out of 5]

• Saggio che esplora "le menti spezzate": persone che vorrebbero dire tanto ma non riescono, persone intrappolate nei meandri della negativitá, altre incapaci di mantenere i piedi saldi al suolo.
• Un "viaggio" nella diversità, che diventa sempre piú normalità.
• Il lavoro incessante di medici volenterosi di curare. Il lavoro poco apprezzabile di altri medici incapaci di vedere al di lá del proprio naso.

C'é un mondo oltre l'estetica. E quel mondo vuole essere ascoltato.

[Alice Baratti · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'autore, neuropsichiatra, ci parla di alcuni casi clinici che ha trattato durante la sua carriera. Li racconta con naturalezza e semplicità riuscendo a rendere la lettura scorrevole e di facile comprensione per tutti i tipi di lettori. Un libro interessante e ricco di spunti di riflessione per tutti coloro che vogliono sapere qualcosa in più sulla mente umana. Adoro questo genere di libri e li leggo sempre molto volentieri.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. It was written with a sympathetic viewpoint and a deep curiosity for the way each patient's mind worked. The scientific explanations were easy to understand without being too simplistic. I felt engaged with each patient's situation and diagnosis and I gobbled the book up in one sitting.

[Nicole C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libro interessante per chi ama il campo della psicologia e della psichiatria, ma credevo che fosse più approfondita la sindrome di Cotard, quindi mi ha deluso un po’. Sono analizzati sette casi, ho trovato i primi capitoli interessanti, gli altri noiosi.

[wero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dla mnie, czyli kogoś kto dopiero zaczyna zagłębiać się w neuropsychiatrię, była to bardzo interesująca książka i z każdego przypadku dowiedziałam się czegoś nowego. Autor zagłębia się i w historię pacjenta i w objawy choroby, co jest idealnie zrównoważone.
4⭐️, bo mam wrażenie, że niektóre przypadki nie były wystarczająco zagłębione i czułam się trochę zawiedziona, że już koniec rozdziału.

[Izza · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars |

[Veronica ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Johannes Lilover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting case studies written in a very "pop-sciency" way without much depth. The ease of reading compensates for the many apparent flaws.