Kay Jamison, an authority on, and herself a sufferer of Bipolar Disorder, author's the brief introduction. Dr. Jamison see's "[the essayists'] struggles' to define and describe depression [as] the most important process for the reader(1). I humbly concur, adding only that integral to "definitions" and "descriptions" are the discussions that focus on the fascinating, oftentimes frightening, and always very real emotional perspectives based on experiences. Herein the authors' use the written word as the medium with which to tackle such cogent issues as: the role of guilt/emotions in illness, the process of evaluating psychotropic medications (social, medical and ethical considerations [and even ECT as an option]), the search for the right form of therapy, the maintenance of relationships through the awful upheavals that go hand-in-hand with any severe mood disorder, the tortorous decision to accept hospitalization, and the list goes on.
Admittedly, many of the pages do not paint a rosy picture, and for every success, there are those sickly sad souls for which the process of suffering and lengthy treatment do not allow some such people to emerge anew. Nevertheless, between the lines, there is an inherent sense of hope if one looks hard enough. For the sake of brevity, suffice to say that mental illness requires strengths & commitments that are delineated in this book.
Perhaps most important, by taking the experiences of "real people," by the last page the reader may experience a double epiphany: (1) first epiphany - mental illness is very common and those who have it should take refuge in the knowledge that you are not alone, and that the illness can be overcome; and (2) second epiphany - hard work and due diligence is an integral part of recovery and at the end of the day, is the responsibility of the patient (it is not your doctor's responsibility).
Don't be fooled - this is not a self-help book. It relies on experience to provide knowledge. It is not a literary pill that you swallow the way you might swallow a diet product. Instead, it's a set of stories that promise entertainment, some laughs, some tears and even a few gems of wisdom. Once you pick the book up, you'll never want to put it down. However, in so doing, understand that with those gems of wisdom come some awful truths.
The book consists of twenty-two essays (three of which are excerpts from earlier works). Each shared experience is unique, is written by people from all walks of life, and is terribly compelling. As you proceed, don't be surprised to find yourself saying, as I often did "I know exactly how the author feels." "My gosh!I've been in that very situation," or even "I know someone exactly like that. I wonder if --."
"Unholy Ghost" leaves no emotional stone unturned. Indeed, each author has a clear point to make. Virginia Heffernan (for example) who battered severe depression, uses her essay "A Delicious Placebo," as her medium with which to judge herself (albeit, somewhat harshly) - "How did I turn from a talkative batgirl child into a stifled, abstracted monster (12)?" David Karp, an erudite professor uses "An Unwelcome Career" to challenge traditional psychodynamic psychotherapy. He asserts: "[a]fter several tempts to find a savior, I became tired of recounting my biography and fundamentally dubious about the efficacy of talking as a solution (144)." Martha Manning, like Karp, also attacks traditional approaches to psychotherapy. She argues in "The Legacy" that "I had placed most of my emotional cards on the table, but was disappointed that my therapist still hadn't constructed some brilliant framework in which my difficulties could be finally uncovered and my dysfunction excised (257)."
In "Bodies in the Basement," author Russell Banks discusses the personal challenge of dealing & trying to understand his wife's severe deppressions's. His initial misconceptions about mental illness seem very much commonplace. To this end, he asserts in his essay "...I assumed that my wife's personality [mood disorder] originated in her attitude, her view of the world, and was therefor pretty much under her control (32)." By the end of the essay, Banks makes a fundamental transition, and in the process, comes to recognize that his wife's illness "...which went, not with her choice of spouse or diet or job or residence, but with her brain chemistry (36)."
As I conclude, I hope I have conveyed to you [the reader] that this book of essays is a "must-have" if either you, or someone you care about suffers from some form of psychiatric illness; and for those who are fortunate enough to live without such disorders, it is still a "must-read," if for no other reason than it is entertaining and fascinating at the same time.
Unholy Ghost reflects the ordeal of depression via the perspectives of those coping with it. The DSM-IV provides a skeletal structure for understanding the diagnosis. These essays add flesh to the framework. The reader is given an opportunity to intimately connect with each writer's experience of anguish. Some might criticize these essays as self-absorbed and declare the writers to be imperfect. Well, that's the point. This book is about personal involvement, revealing humans who try to genuinely articulate their journeys. Among many viewpoints, the reader will grapple with the issue of taking medication while pregnant, what it is like to be an African American woman who is depressed, how one person's "failed" suicide led to a reckoning with life, trying to understand the heritability of depression, and the general strange reality of living with this heavy companion.
This book does not contain answers. It is ponderous and sometimes disconsolate reading. What it does is invite the reader to walk alongside each writer and learn vicariously what depression can be. As a person who lives with major depression and dysthymia, I was fascinated by these voices and heartened by their company. As a psychotherapist, these essays will be a valuable tool for me in educating people about the dimensions of depression.