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Product reviews for Understanding Dissociative Disorders
Rosemary Bray, independent therapist
My initial impression of this book was "attractive'; to the eye " clear print and colourful cover; to the hand " physically small and light; and to the mind " the large print with bite sized sections (bullet points are excellent) persuade one immediately that this book is comfortably readable.
The back cover reviews inform a comprehensive selection of professional views although, for the UK market, I felt that there was an over emphasis on Hypnotherapy. I would suggest some validation from a specialist in Attachment Theory, might be useful as an alternative.
The other point that I felt would have been better made on the flyleaf is the very definite role of family practitioners and health care workers in this field " this is, in fact, not made until page XV of the introduction.
I felt that the subtitle "A Guide for Family Physicians and Health Care Professionals' was vitally important. My experience, as a counsellor, of trying to "educate' the medics involved in my clients' care about dissociation has often been met with resistance. It must be so much more appealing to the ego to have a book written by a medic especially for a medic than to have someone of a different professional discipline possibly make you feel more uncomfortable about a patient you were already feeling uncomfortable about, (although of course you would not admit it)!
Marlene offers an understanding of the psychosomatic presentations of the patient in a manner acceptable to both physician and patient. In fact this was something I really valued throughout the book " I felt the patient was represented as a unique person of worth rather than "a difficult patient' or "a nuisance' as is so often the case.
Particularly for those who are responsible for the prescribing of medication, the information Marlene offers regarding appropriate drugs/dosages must be a godsend. The neurophysiological material offered is welcome "evidence'- science agreeing with what we, as practitioners, have long since "known'. Indeed this book marries comfortably together psyche and soma, therapy and science, left and right brain and counsellers and physicians.
Certainly Marlene makes many pertinent points through the pages of her book and I felt that her coverage of the multiple issues related to Dissociative was given comprehensive and concise coverage. I also appreciated her use of "common language' (although some of the brand names of medicines need to be modified for the UK). Too often writer's fail in conveying their learning to their audience through the use of complex language understood only by the minority.
One negative observation - in my experience issues of transference and counter transference are enormous with this client group and the appropriate understanding/management or lack of such can be a great help or a great hindrance to the client work. I did not feel that this issue was covered in anything like enough detail. Although Marlene does talk about her responses to the patient she does not explain it in terms of the process of transference.
I felt that the writer rather "meandered' through her own personal journey to the hard core factual text " but then perhaps all of us have become interested/active in this area of work via our own personal journey? In a world where the expectation is that the "Doctor always knows' Marlenes candour and willingness to share her personal learning process has an appealing honesty. I would hope that this would give other medics the courage to confront their own discomfiture and confusion. Certainly Marlene succeeds well in normalizing DID for the family physician "you have a dissociative patient on your caseload, open your eyes!'
Finally, I would judge this an excellent little book that fills a gap in the UK medical market and I would hope that in the current climate of the rewriting of the NHS Mental Health guidelines and policies it could make some impact. Surely every practitioner cannot fail to immediately recognise themselves/their dissociative patients on reading it? I sincerely hope so.
The back cover reviews inform a comprehensive selection of professional views although, for the UK market, I felt that there was an over emphasis on Hypnotherapy. I would suggest some validation from a specialist in Attachment Theory, might be useful as an alternative.
The other point that I felt would have been better made on the flyleaf is the very definite role of family practitioners and health care workers in this field " this is, in fact, not made until page XV of the introduction.
I felt that the subtitle "A Guide for Family Physicians and Health Care Professionals' was vitally important. My experience, as a counsellor, of trying to "educate' the medics involved in my clients' care about dissociation has often been met with resistance. It must be so much more appealing to the ego to have a book written by a medic especially for a medic than to have someone of a different professional discipline possibly make you feel more uncomfortable about a patient you were already feeling uncomfortable about, (although of course you would not admit it)!
Marlene offers an understanding of the psychosomatic presentations of the patient in a manner acceptable to both physician and patient. In fact this was something I really valued throughout the book " I felt the patient was represented as a unique person of worth rather than "a difficult patient' or "a nuisance' as is so often the case.
Particularly for those who are responsible for the prescribing of medication, the information Marlene offers regarding appropriate drugs/dosages must be a godsend. The neurophysiological material offered is welcome "evidence'- science agreeing with what we, as practitioners, have long since "known'. Indeed this book marries comfortably together psyche and soma, therapy and science, left and right brain and counsellers and physicians.
Certainly Marlene makes many pertinent points through the pages of her book and I felt that her coverage of the multiple issues related to Dissociative was given comprehensive and concise coverage. I also appreciated her use of "common language' (although some of the brand names of medicines need to be modified for the UK). Too often writer's fail in conveying their learning to their audience through the use of complex language understood only by the minority.
One negative observation - in my experience issues of transference and counter transference are enormous with this client group and the appropriate understanding/management or lack of such can be a great help or a great hindrance to the client work. I did not feel that this issue was covered in anything like enough detail. Although Marlene does talk about her responses to the patient she does not explain it in terms of the process of transference.
I felt that the writer rather "meandered' through her own personal journey to the hard core factual text " but then perhaps all of us have become interested/active in this area of work via our own personal journey? In a world where the expectation is that the "Doctor always knows' Marlenes candour and willingness to share her personal learning process has an appealing honesty. I would hope that this would give other medics the courage to confront their own discomfiture and confusion. Certainly Marlene succeeds well in normalizing DID for the family physician "you have a dissociative patient on your caseload, open your eyes!'
Finally, I would judge this an excellent little book that fills a gap in the UK medical market and I would hope that in the current climate of the rewriting of the NHS Mental Health guidelines and policies it could make some impact. Surely every practitioner cannot fail to immediately recognise themselves/their dissociative patients on reading it? I sincerely hope so.
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14/09/2004 01:00
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