A Journey Through War and Mental Illness

I've neglected these pages for a while, but with a purpose. My reading seems to follow themes and I've just reached the end of a chain of related - at least in my own mind - books. Back in November I read Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong, the same month I bought Anthem For a Doomed Youth a collection of, and guide to, Great War poetry, after that I read the other two stunningly good books in Faulks loose trilogy: The Girl at the Lion D'Or and Charlotte Grey; both books disturbing and enthralling in their depth as they follow characters from the Great War, between the wars and into the Second World War. All three books feature, to a degree, mental illness which led me to yet another Faulks book: Human Traces this book's setting pre-dates the Great War and charts the birth of modern psychiatry and the tussles of two 19th Century doctors as they struggle to help patients suffering from mental illness with techniques based on the flimsiest understanding of neurology and psychology (the term not yet coined).

Still in my war phase I was introduced to Pat Barker and her Regeneration Trilogy (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road - I have yet to read The Ghost Road) these stunning books examine societal attitudes to mental illness during the Great War among officers and a lower ranked men. They also consider homosexuality and the anti war lobby. They are again disturbing and compelling reading (this also tied in perfectly with my reading of the war poets: Regeneration features Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen).

Hot on the trail of psychiatry by then, I followed the track to The Interpretation Of Murder by Jed Reubenfeld; this is essentially a detective story where the case is solved with the assistance of embryonic psychotherapy set against the backdrop of a wealthy nineteenth century New York community and their resistance to Freud's theories based on sexuality.

Phew! what a journey, in another few months I dare say I'll have another list of books to share with you.