Bibliograph

Falling into the fire, a psychiatrist's encounters with the mind in crisis, Christine Montross

Type

Label

Falling into the fire, a psychiatrist's encounters with the mind in crisis, Christine Montross

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-226) and index

resource.biographical

autobiography

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Falling into the fire

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

818953811

Responsibility statement

Christine Montross

Sub title

a psychiatrist's encounters with the mind in crisis

Summary

Falling Into the Fire is psychiatrist Christine Montross's thoughtful investigation of the gripping patient encounters that have challenged and deepened her practice. The majority of the patients she treats here are seen in the locked inpatient wards of a psychiatric hospital; all are in moments of profound crisis. Each case study presents its own line of inquiry, leading her to seek relevant psychiatric knowledge from diverse sources. A doctor of uncommon curiosity and compassion, Montross discovers lessons in medieval dancing plagues, in leading forensic and neurological research, and in moments from her own life. Throughout, she confronts the larger question of psychiatry: What is to be done when a patient's experiences cannot be accounted for, or helped, by what contemporary medicine knows about the brain? When all else fails, she finds, what remains is the capacity to abide, to sit with the desperate in their darkest moments. At once rigorous and meditative, Falling Into the Fire is an intimate portrait of psychiatry, allowing the reader to witness the humanity of the practice and the enduring mysteries of the mind.--From publisher description

Table Of Contents

The woman who needed a zipper -- Fifty-thousand-dollar skin -- Your drugs take away the love -- I've hidden all the knives -- Dancing plagues and double impostors -- Epilogue : into the fire, into the water

Classification