Lauren Slater is a psychologist who obviously enjoys a colourful turn of phrase. In Welcome to My Country (published by Penguin), Slater recounts her experiences of working at a clinic in Boston alongside the schizophrenic, the chronically depressed, the sociopathic, and the otherwise troubled. She positively revels in vivid description, describing one patient as having ‘skin the color of deep coal’, another as having a spine ‘standing out like a string of pearls’, and yet another as having a ‘voice as bleak as a British moor’ (though, given the context of this last phrase, I can’t help wondering how many British moors the author has actually seen!). This very much underlines the fact that this is not a textbook containing dispassionate case histories, but an experiential account of engaging with mentally and emotionally disturbed individuals.
Slater’s academic grounding at Harvard and Boston Universities has not fully prepared her for suddenly entering a foreign land populated by people who seem to experience reality very differently. This is a world where women can also be paintbrushes, where spaceships can rest on people’s stomachs, and where intimate relationships can be maintained with albino girls in the sky. It is among disparate individuals with disparate delusions that Slater – uneasy and occasionally offended – has to conduct group and individual therapy, encouraging patients out of their bizarre individual world experiences into a more common shared world experience.
As Slater’s story unfolds it becomes apparent that she often succeeds in entering into the worlds of her patients – even when those worlds remain stubbornly unintelligible. She comes to empathise with her patients, even when initially revolted by some of their characteristics. This is a very striking aspect of the story, especially given her admission of how little confidence she often has in formally understanding her patients’ needs.
Despite Slater’s robust theoretical knowledge, much of what she seems to do in therapy – in terms of procedure – is little more than trial and error. Slater’s strength (and her vulnerability) seems to lie in her ability to empathise. Indeed, aspects of her patients’ stories stir up personal memories and emotions for her, leaving her pondering on the content of therapy sessions long after she has finished work for the day, and forcing her to confront certain aspects of herself. Slater even expresses the general observation that the mentally disturbed sometimes ‘force you into things you’d rather not see, not say.’ And she expands on this by confessing that, in knowing certain patients, she finds herself returning to a state of shame followed by emptiness.
What is so disarming about this book – and what only gradually becomes apparent – is that Slater is personally familiar with psychological torment. It is this which finally gives contextual meaning to the entire book in an exquisitely moving final chapter.
Welcome to My Country is a beautifully written memoir, expressing well-informed insight through a fusion of imagination, poetic language and technical knowledge. An extraordinary book.
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Welcome to My Country: A Therapist’s Memoir of Madness by Lauren Slater is published by Penguin Books
ISBN 978-0-14-025465-5
Delivered Unto Lions by David Austin is published by CheckPoint Press
ISBN 978-1-906628-21-5
For more information visit www.davidaustin.eu
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