An Improbable Psychiatrist

A captivating and personal journey of mental illness, told through the experience of both a doctor and patient.

Rebecca Lawrence (Author)

9781009515061, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 November 2024

238 pages
19.7 x 12.8 x 1.3 cm, 0.25 kg

'This brave memoir by a psychiatrist who has severe mental illness shows how lost and confused psychiatry and its patients have become. Future readers will be amazed, we must hope, by how poorly we understood and how ineffectively we treated the troubled mind.' Horatio Claire, The Guardian

An Improbable Psychiatrist is a powerful and insightful story of mental illness, told through the dual lens of a doctor, who later became a patient. Rebecca Lawrence shares her story of being a doctor and a psychiatrist while living with bipolar disorder. She details her experience of being an inpatient on a psychiatric ward, receiving electroconvulsive therapy, training as a doctor, and navigating the challenges of grief, loss, and family. Through her inspiring story, Rebecca aims to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness and provide comfort to those who suffer from severe mood disorders and those who care for them. Told through engaging and captivating prose, this book will pull you into Rebecca's world and leave you with the powerful reminder that with the right support and treatment, it is possible to live with severe mental illness. Ultimately, this is a story of hope.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Prologue: 1990s, Royal Edinburgh Hospital
1. A medical student
2. A junior doctor
3. A GP trainee and a patient
4. Back to Edinburgh
5. A baby
6. Admissions – the revolving door
7. Recovery?
8. Into the fray
9. A psychiatric trainee
10. Lucy
11. Back from the edge
12. The grey walls
13. A real psychiatrist
14. Substances
15. The unexpected
16. Going too far?
17. Moods and medicine
Afterword: Richard's view
Afterword: Professor Stephen Lawrie
Glossary
Resources
References.

Subject Areas: Clinical psychology [MMJ]