Monday, April 29, 2024

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living.

 




Just published on Amazon

The Cockroach Catcher II: Attempted Living.


        In medicine, we have often been brought up to accept terms that were traditionally used without asking questions. After encountering many cases from my very early medical career in Internal Medicine, through Adult Psychiatry and eventually Child Psychiatry, attempted suicide is a term that puzzled me on and off. 

        One such case eventually changed my mind and it is described in the Chapter that carries the book title: Attempted Living.

            

Attempted Suicide

or

Attempted Living!

            

 Ålesund , Norway

One day before the meeting he asked me, "After Pretender, which Ibsen are you now reading?”

So he remembered recommending Ibsen to me.

"Ghosts!   I thought that was about syphilis."  I valiantly ventured.

“Substitute syphilis with the other condition beginning with S…..”

"Schizophrenia?"

“……And the son Oswald went catatonic! And hallucinating about ghosts……”

It was only after Ibsen’s death that the term schizophrenia was coined and the disorder described.

My guru was a Freudian psychoanalyst and so it would not surprise you that he would like to analyse and understand even the worst psychotics. We had an understanding not to put any patient on medication for the first six weeks of admission, unless they became too unmanageable.






     The book ends with a sunrise photo signifying a touching story of hope.


Review on Amazon:

Maureen
5.0 out of 5 stars Not the ordinary memoir

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

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.

No comments: