The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---Private Asylum

 

Ruins of St. Paul's, Macau

What Lui wanted to know was whether he should do what his brother’s psychiatrist in Macau recommended, to put him in a mental hospital.

Lui had heard horrible stories about the goings on inside these institutions.  He was so worried that he set up a flat solely for the purpose of keeping his brother under round-the-clock watch.  He wanted me to give my professional opinion. Was the arrangement going to do his brother harm, and would his brother be better off in a mental hospital?.............

The three-bedroom flat was furnished and equipped to provide “secure” accommodation for his brother. Two maids were employed to look after him and they worked in shifts so that there would always be someone to guard him and see to his needs. Fancy looking sliding aluminium doors were installed in such a way that the maids could be kept “safe” from the sometimes violent schizophrenic patient.  These latticed doors formed secure partitions between rooms while allowing visibility and the patient was never allowed into the kitchen.  The doors were designed such that at meal times, the maids could put the food on the table in the dining room, retreat into the kitchen and lock the partition before letting the patient into the dining room.  Not difficult for a man in the aluminium business!

On Sundays, Lui would take the patient out to see the parents and have a nice meal, accompanied by one of the maids.

What could I say?

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---Daimler and The Vagabond

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---He Did Not Show

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---Life is a Beach

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---Incestuous Failure

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living.

Just published on Amazon

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living.  

Review on Amazon:

Maureen

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the ordinary memoir

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 17, 2023

Verified Purchase  Am Ang Zhang has brilliantly woven together nostalgia, discoveries, astute observations and intelligent opinions. The fascinating title of the book is a deliberate understatement of his abundant life, where being a senior consultant psychiatrist is only a part of it . He is obviously a man of gifted intellect and refined tastes who, rather than hampered by material scarcity as a young child refugee, was fascinated by beauty in nature, and quickly acquired an appreciation of the finer things in life, enriched by travels and sustained by a keen engaging mind.
Reading his memoir is eye opening, and at times therapeutic. It was like meeting up with a learned old friend, as you sit with him and listen while his memories and ideas overflow. You travel with him as his stories move from continent to continent, from detailed episodes to gentle remarks, from freshly harvested catches to gourmet preparations, from ancient finds to modern scientific research ......
A most delightful read.

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living

Cockroach Catcher-Seven Minute Cure

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---He Did Not Show

 

Snow Geese

            “We are near Laurentides Wildlife Reserve.  This also means we have nearly reached our destination.  You can imagine how bleak the place must be in the winter.”

         “On the contrary, I think it must be beautiful.”

         “But bleak. There is hardly any car on the road now and the place must be deserted in the winter.”

         “The roads could be treacherous too, winding through the edge of the reserve. I would not want to be driving here in the ice and snow.”

         “Even now in May, the snow geese darkened sky gives you that sense of man struggling against nature.  It is a pity Will did not grow up here as I am sure he would have appreciated the beauty and the desolation, and the change of seasons too.”

         “It is only two thirty, we could easily make it to the library before they close.”

         If they had known what they would find out, perhaps they would not have been so keen.  That could wait another day or forever.  But they had come this far; the sooner they found out, the better.

------Near this Reserve, Will's natural mother died from a car accident after secretly giving birth to him in England. It took Will's adoptive parents a difficult but worthwhile journey to trace his heritage.

Chapters:

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---Life is a Beach

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---Incestuous Failure

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living.

 Just published on Amazon

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living.           

Review on Amazon:

Maureen

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the ordinary memoir

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 17, 2023

Verified PurchaseAm Ang Zhang has brilliantly woven together nostalgia, discoveries, astute observations and intelligent opinions. The fascinating title of the book is a deliberate understatement of his abundant life, where being a senior consultant psychiatrist is only a part of it . He is obviously a man of gifted intellect and refined tastes who, rather than hampered by material scarcity as a young child refugee, was fascinated by beauty in nature, and quickly acquired an appreciation of the finer things in life, enriched by travels and sustained by a keen engaging mind.
Reading his memoir is eye opening, and at times therapeutic. It was like meeting up with a learned old friend, as you sit with him and listen while his memories and ideas overflow. You travel with him as his stories move from continent to continent, from detailed episodes to gentle remarks, from freshly harvested catches to gourmet preparations, from ancient finds to modern scientific research ......
A most delightful read.

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living

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Cockroach Catcher-Seven Minute Cure

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The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---Life is a Beach

            

 Pompano, Myrtle Beach

               Finding Myrtle Beach was sheer serendipity.  It was on the itinerary of our tour of the East Coast of the United States.  We learned that the place boasted over 60 golf courses, and I had just retired and developed a new interest in the game. 

After the next tide

No trace whatsoever. 

 After a lifetime spent trying to sort out some strange, some twisted and some really hilarious minds, the psychiatrist retired and the next tide came and much of his effort in building the best lakes and rivers evaporated. Do I want to leave some trace of my efforts?   Perhaps some stories are worth telling.  As the water flows it changes course and it changes the landscape. Hopefully I have managed to effect a few changes along the way.

  Horseshoe Crab Moulted shells

               Last autumn, during a lull in the pandemic, we were lucky enough to be able to take a break in Cape Cod.  On the beach at Westfleet Bay, we saw piles of shells left by moulting Horseshoe Crabs.  Since horseshoe crabs have hard shells, they must moult to grow.  No, the waves did not wash away these cast-off shells, but had a way of depositing them at the top end of the beach.  A pharmaceutical product made from the blue, copper based blood of these creatures is currently the fastest and best way to detect bacterial contamination of Covid 19 Vaccines.

                Unlike sand castles, Horseshoe Crab shells do not get washed away.   Some bits of what we do may remain for all to see.  Some of us may be able to leave a legacy after all.

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---Incestuous Failure

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living.

 Just published on Amazon

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living.           

Review on Amazon:

Maureen

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the ordinary memoir

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 17, 2023

Verified PurchaseAm Ang Zhang has brilliantly woven together nostalgia, discoveries, astute observations and intelligent opinions. The fascinating title of the book is a deliberate understatement of his abundant life, where being a senior consultant psychiatrist is only a part of it . He is obviously a man of gifted intellect and refined tastes who, rather than hampered by material scarcity as a young child refugee, was fascinated by beauty in nature, and quickly acquired an appreciation of the finer things in life, enriched by travels and sustained by a keen engaging mind.
Reading his memoir is eye opening, and at times therapeutic. It was like meeting up with a learned old friend, as you sit with him and listen while his memories and ideas overflow. You travel with him as his stories move from continent to continent, from detailed episodes to gentle remarks, from freshly harvested catches to gourmet preparations, from ancient finds to modern scientific research ......
A most delightful read.

AMAZON-UK    The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living

Cockroach Catcher-Seven Minute Cure

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living---Incestuous Failure

Daily Chapters: Incestuous Failure

             In Hong Kong, the one and only mental hospital, Castle Peak Hospital, was in the New Territories, far away from the city.  Once a week we ran an outpatient clinic in Kowloon and all the junior doctors except the two on call would be out there seeing new and follow-up patients.

            The majority of cases were schizophrenia, with the occasional manic depressives.   

            Then in my West London Psychiatric Unit...................

            This much I knew. My guru had spent a lot of time working on a psychoanalytical understanding of schizophrenics - an approach frowned upon by the mainstream psychiatrists of that era.  He got his MD from Edinburgh on a thesis about the relationship between mothers and schizophrenic sons in particular.  It was close to Margaret Mahler’s view, theorizing that unresolved infancy stages led to late adolescent breakdown.

The best assessment I could give him about his view on this was: “Interesting!”

I found many things to admire in my new found guru, but there were limits.  Schizophrenia is schizophrenia.  Psychoanalysis for schizophrenia?  I could not be convinced.  No matter, I still held him in high esteem, and we remained good friends even after I moved on to my next post at a premier psychoanalytic centre.  Perhaps it was his influence. 

Ray had just one book with him: a dog-eared copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

I remember once over lunch, out of the blue my guru told me about the question posed by James Joyce:  “When he and his daughter spoke the same language and said similar things, why did he become famous and yet his daughter was diagnosed schizophrenia?”

My Guru:  From quite early observations I came to detect specific patterns in given patient–nurse relationships, having those characteristics to which elsewhere we give the term 'transference'1 and which have their basis in the family life of the patient. So long as I played the traditional doctor role, I could exclude myself and be excluded from the emotional content of the patient–nurse relationship. It seemed that everything conspired to invite me into reiteration of father's role in the patient's family. This can be summed up in a rhetorical question—'does the schizophrenic have a father?

Conran MB (1976) Schizophrenia as incestuous failure. Theoretical implications, derived from transference observations of the young male schizophrenic and his mother, concerning the mother-infant relationship. In: Proceedings of the Vth international symposium on the psychotherapy of schizophrenia, Oslo 1975. Universitetsforlaget, pp 203-210

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 Just published on Amazon

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living.

                   

Attempted Suicide

or

Attempted Living!

Review on Amazon:

Maureen

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the ordinary memoir

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 17, 2023

Verified PurchaseAm Ang Zhang has brilliantly woven together nostalgia, discoveries, astute observations and intelligent opinions. The fascinating title of the book is a deliberate understatement of his abundant life, where being a senior consultant psychiatrist is only a part of it . He is obviously a man of gifted intellect and refined tastes who, rather than hampered by material scarcity as a young child refugee, was fascinated by beauty in nature, and quickly acquired an appreciation of the finer things in life, enriched by travels and sustained by a keen engaging mind.
Reading his memoir is eye opening, and at times therapeutic. It was like meeting up with a learned old friend, as you sit with him and listen while his memories and ideas overflow. You travel with him as his stories move from continent to continent, from detailed episodes to gentle remarks, from freshly harvested catches to gourmet preparations, from ancient finds to modern scientific research ......
A most delightful read.

AMAZON-UK    The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living

Cockroach Catcher-Seven Minute Cure

 
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