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Werke von Mary Cregan

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And More by Andy Rooney (1982) — Gestaltung — 279 Exemplare
Pieces of My Mind (1984) — Gestaltung — 199 Exemplare

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Gebräuchlichste Namensform
Cregan, Mary
Geschlecht
female
Nationalität
USA
Berufe
book designer

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Rating: 3.5

In the preface to her book, Mary Cregan explains that it will provide the personal story of her mental illness (and suicidality) and a cultural, literary, historical study of psychiatry that will include some scientific information as well. The book’s expository elements often outweigh the memoir component, and, although I did learn some things, I found parts of the text pretty dry. For example, I wasn’t particularly interested in the history of the New York Hospital—Westchester psychiatric branch, the asylum to which Cregan was confined for three months when she was 27 years old in the spring of 1984.

Cregan explains that there was a history of depression in her family. She recognizes that she experienced moments of inexplicable sadness in childhood and longer episodes of mood disturbance in her teenage years. However, the crisis—a major depressive episode, with melancholia—did not strike until she was in her late twenties. In December 1983, a few months prior to entering the psychiatric institution, Cregan lost her daughter within 24 hours of the child’s birth. The baby had an inoperable heart defect. After this, the author fell into ever-deepening dejection and despair. The baby’s death was proof to Cregan of her essential defectiveness. She felt she had no right to exist. No longer able to control the impulses that seemed to be directing her to end her own life, she ultimately signed papers to admit herself to the psychiatric hospital. It was here that Cregan, whose compliance and cooperation possibly lulled medical personnel into the false sense that their patient was not at significant risk, almost succeeded in taking her own life. To this day, she bears a scar on her neck, a reminder of how she almost managed to self-destruct. “It’s the sign of an illness that has shaped my history, she writes. “It hasn’t allowed me to forget the most harrowing days of my life.” Over the years, it has been necessary for Cregan to stay attuned to her internal state, her moods and thoughts, and remain on antidepressant medication. She acknowledges: “I have no choice but to accept the presence of this disorder, and to remain wary of it.”

Among the many subjects Cregan considers in her book—all of them related to her own diagnosis, treatment, or experience—are the following: the (changing) labels/names for psychiatric disorders; endogenous depression (a biological illness) vs. psycho-reactive depression (a response to stressful life events); the history and use of electroshock therapy; the asylum experience (including the degrees of surveillance of suicidal patients); Freud’s perspective on mourning and melancholia; the role of religious upbringing in mental illness; loss and grief; the serendipitous, accidental, and profit-driven discoveries of certain psychoactive medications (including the revolutionary ’50s drugs, chlorpromazine and imipramine, which were derived from dyes) and the arrival of Prozac and other SSRIs in the ‘80s and ‘90s . . . and more. If these topics sound interesting, then this is your book. Having already encountered some of this material elsewhere over the years, I wasn’t always engaged by the expository sections of Cregan’s work. I was most interested in her discussion of her personal story of coming to terms with the fact that depressive illness would always be a part of her. The author’s discussion of her Catholic upbringing and the role of certain character traits in depressive illness was also valuable.

Early on, there are frequent allusions to literature and literary figures; Rainer Maria Rilke, Sir Robert Burton (author of The Anatomy of Melancholy), Sylvia Plath, and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest author Ken Kesey are among those who make appearances. A number of poems, myths, and novels are alluded to and considered—perhaps not too surprising from an author with a doctorate In English literature. Film and popular culture are sometimes referred to as well.

Cregan’s book has a calm, detached, somewhat academic feel to it. The writing is cleaner and less dense than scholarly works, however, and it is unencumbered by footnotes. Instead, there is an excellent set of notes appended to the main text; I only wish these had been conveniently hyperlinked in the book edition I borrowed from my library. The author has clearly read widely and synthesized a vast amount of material to create an informative book, for which she deserves to be commended.

Cregan says she comes from a family whose modus operandi was to keep silent about personal matters. It shows in this book, but that does not diminish the fact that it was an act of courage to write it.
… (mehr)
½
 
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fountainoverflows | Nov 9, 2019 |

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Werke
2
Auch von
2
Mitglieder
27
Beliebtheit
#483,027
Bewertung
½ 3.5
Rezensionen
1
ISBNs
4