Welcome to My Country: Journeys into the World of a Therapist and Her Patients

Rating:
Summary: The Art of Vulnerability
Review: Her work is not a work of non-fiction. She admits that she has changed the identities she has written about and confounded their settings. Therefore "Welcome To My Country" should be regarded as a work of fiction. But that is nothing to spit on.
I must confess that I feel a sense of dread and perverse anticipation when I look back on my reading of this book. Doctor Slater engages in what can only be called the art of vulnerability. She peels back the petals of many, many roses until we find, with a bit of shock, that the most central rose is both hers and our own. Her prose is cool but her spirit is warm. The theme of the erotic is constant through out this book and in all of its episodes. I was bewildered by this until in a sequence that lies near the end of the work she reveals exactly what country we are being welcomed to. Her own confessions are gut wrenching and are the kinds of expostulations that make me cringe as if I was being compelled to pay ear to the screechings of fingernails dragged across the surface of a black board.
There is a great beauty in this book. There is also something slightly clumsy and sweaty as Doctor Slater strives to make sense of the madness of her clients and her own madness.
A memoir of madness. Whose?
I will return to this book often.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling memoir of working and healing in a mental clinic
Review: Ihave to admit to a bias as I review this book. Lauren Slater was both my English student and, subsequently, my ³foster² daughter; in fact, her time living with my family in our seventeenth-century house comprises part of the moving last chapter of her book, a chapter in which she talks of healing, her own and that of a patient¹s. The majority of the book, which she terms ²creative non-fiction,² is her account of working with psychotic patients in a clinic in East Boston. Her descriptions of these patients, her ability to identify with them no matter how desperate their circumstances might seem, combined with her lyrical, metaphoric use of language makes this book compelling reading. The only question I asked myself as I read it was the extent to which I was reading ³fictionalized fact². If the last chapter is typical, I can personally vouch for the fact that Ms. Slater took almost no liberties, except to disguise names and some identifying details, suggesting that the rest of the book is largely true to life, albeit more beautifully expressed than one would expect the messy lives of the psychotic and neurotic persons who inhabit the pages to be. I recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Fearful Redemption
Review: Lauren Slater has guts. We've had decades and decades of first hand accounts of mental illness by those who have worked with the afflicted, but Slater is singular in her unwillingness to spare the layman's sensibilities.

Slater's book is a first hand account of her journey through life with a house full of schizophrenics, some doomed and some just in the reach of redemption. She herself is driven to the emotional brink trying to bring something whole out of these irretrievably wounded people. In one scene she practically breaks down trying to convince a group of schizophrenics that the imaginary UFO they want to take off in as a group simply isn't there. She works with a borderline sociopath male chauvinist, every inch the ruthless alphamale, who brutalizes his girlfriend and in his spare time watches sadomasochistic pornography films--all symptoms of his underlying terror of the feminine. Miraculously, despite her disgust with this guy, she gets somewhere with him.

This is not light reading but necessary reading.

Rating:
Summary: Welcome Reaction from a Family Therapist
Review: Lauren Slater presents a vivid tale of a therapist' s sojourn, examining mental illness from both an insider's and outsider' s perspective. Slater takes us on a journey through her own work in hospital settings, culminating in a personal coda. She confronts unbelievable countertransference at Mount Vernon, the same place she was hospitalized, with a client suffering from a similar constellation of symptoms. She is unique in the mental health community, populated by professionals attempting to abstract themselves from their clientele in the name of objectivity. Although, my psychoanalytic frame dictates an objective stance, I was deeply touched by her sincere humanism and willingness to explore the subjective world of her clients' alien worlds.

Before exploring the clients, their illnesses, the therapist and the treatment interventions, I feel compelled to comment on Slater's unique writing style. Her prose is the result of the ability to paint from a diverse palette of lexicon, style, theory and foremost, metaphor. I was whisked through her world, experience and firm theoretical grounding, giving way to a clear image of her thought process and orientation as a therapist. Her writing style is lush and sensual, like her unique approach to therapy, crossing boundaries rarely trespassed by the orthodox therapist. At certain points, I was left questioning whether this was bravery, or a misguided foraging into the taboo realm, which leads to dual relationships.

Often, clients with Axis Two disorders, such as Peter, have a wide repertoire of tactics at their disposal, testing the boundaries and weaknesses of the attendant therapist. I conferred with one of my colleagues, and they agreed that some of her sexual imagery, in describing herself as well as Peter was a bit much, to say the least. For example, she states, "I imagined myself in sequins, my crotch sprayed silver, as I, nude, gyrated to the beat of his voice" (p. 53). Later, she asserts, "in his admission of pain he was now naked; he had pressed himself against me and I wanted to celebrate, not violate, this stance" (p. 59). The list of sexually charged metaphors is simply too long for this brief review. However, a few more examples might help to make my point. She goes on to say, "and I, well, I grew to love him and love the strength in his slow surrender" (p. 61). Sometimes, I was overwhelmed with laughter, writing in the margins "this is too much". For example, try this sentence on for size: "it is a dangerous thing for us, we people who grow up sucking the steel nipples of this country's missiles, many think living in the world is living in war, women who think their bodies are Molotov cocktails that must be detonated, destroyed, before they are munched up by their own metabolism" (p. 62). In the words of George Orwell, "The writer either has a meaning and cannot express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not"(Orwell, 1950). Simply stated, although she is an Ivy Leaguer, her metaphors are mixed as "people sucking steel nipples" clash with munching metabolisms. This is not an isolated example of where I felt metaphors mixed, and poetry superseded the message. Frankly, my impression of Peter was summarized in the margins as, "he is a sociopath", "she's turned on" and "he's got her where he wants her". Perhaps, this is too simplistic, however this was my reaction.

Nevertheless, her work and description of the schizophrenic clients is noteworthy. It helps the shed light on the discombobulated world of the schizophrenic, and her daring and adventurous discarding of the banal "activities of daily living" foisted upon her clientele. I think there is a connection between R.D. Laing's views on insanity and Slater's subjective willingness to voyage into the mind of madness. Perhaps, it is because they both have a grain of insanity within their own minds. However, as Aldous Huxley once stated, "sanity is a matter of degree"(Levy, 1997). I found the hospital settings, frightening, rigid and mundane, until Slater injected some humanity into their sterile milieu. Perhaps, this comes partially from her being a former mental patient and seeing things from the inside looking out as well as the outside looking in.

In contrast to Maslow, Slater's vision as well as her life is circular, not linear. Like so many of us, she finds herself walking down the same path and confronting the past and its ghosts. Emotionally, this resonated with me on a personal and intellectual level. Her client, Linda Cogswell, is described as bulimic and borderline among other things. Slater courageously admits, that she to was diagnosed with an eating disorder and a borderline personality as well as hospitalized at the same facility in which she treated Linda. Lauren Slater allows the reader to catch a glimpse of her unique beauty, and talent as a therapist and person, readily admitting identification with the client. Vis `a vis identifying with Slater as a multifaceted human being, I was able to readily accept the notion that borderline personalities and mental illness involve people as opposed to categorical descriptions. Lauren Slater renews a sense of humanity in writing about her clients, their illnesses, herself as a therapist and her unique approach to therapy. I enjoyed this novel a great deal and was enlightened, entertained and invigorated by her refreshing memoir of madness.




References
Levy, D.A. (1997)., Tools of critical thinking: metathoughts for psychology. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Orwell, G. (1950). Shooting an elephant and other essays. London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.


Rating:
Summary: A look inside
Review: Ms. Slater's portrayal of life in the mental health system is fascinating and poingnant. As a counselor myself, I could relate to her struggles with the individual clients. Her candor and self-disclosure, not only about her therapeutic process but her own struggles with mental illness, makes this book not only a good clinical tool, but a great read. I recommend this book to anyone interested in pursuing a career in mental health, or to people who are currently in therapy who want to know what it's like on the other side of the couch.

Rating:
Summary: A look inside
Review: Ms. Slater's portrayal of life in the mental health system is fascinating and poingnant. As a counselor myself, I could relate to her struggles with the individual clients. Her candor and self-disclosure, not only about her therapeutic process but her own struggles with mental illness, makes this book not only a good clinical tool, but a great read. I recommend this book to anyone interested in pursuing a career in mental health, or to people who are currently in therapy who want to know what it's like on the other side of the couch.

Rating:
Summary: writes like an angel
Review: Read this in the library of Slater's secondary school when I was in hs, but didn't know it was by a graduate. Looked at it from that perspective of knowing who it was by this time w/out knowing that I had read it. I knew that I had read it because I remembered Marie's cracking peach nail polish. I have remembered that image forever; it has been echoing in my mind. I think that I was skimming the book, and hadn't read the personal part before too. So, if I remembered parts of the book after probably 7 years, this has to be an extraordinarily poetic book. After I read the book, I remember thinking maybe I should become a psychologist (i really don't know what i am going to do yet, but the book really did make an impression on me nevertheless). So, this book deserves really to be in any library, and not on the basis of the author graduating from that school! The author comes across as being very compassionate and well spoken. She writes like an angel.

Rating:
Summary: An Easy, Enjoyable Read
Review: Slater recalls her treatment of some of her most memorable clients. From her work at a group home for chronic schizophrenic males to an offensive, aggressive and violent man diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, Slater discusses how she reached out to these clients and tried to create a positive change in their lives. When she is asked to counsel a girl at the same psychiatric hospital where Slater was once a patient herself, memories come flooding back, along with the fear that she will be recognized and her career will be ruined. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in psychology, mental disorders or the therapy process.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: The book was fasinating reading about the dynamics between a therapist (with problems )trying to help her patients with similar difficulties. This set-up distinguishes Welcome to My Country from other, author-centered-self indulgent books (like PROZAC NATION). I really felt like I could relate to this author. She was so successful in her career yet she simply had a few things missing in her life (I'll leave those to you to figure out). I have read many books about women with mental problems but this is one of my favorites. It is simpler than PROZAC NATION but I think just as effective in terms of remembering characters and plot several months after you finish the book. The characters are not superficial. Not everybody would like this book. Rather, it is for the reader who likes deep literature and is not afraid of reading about all kinds of emotional problams. Moreover, much of Lauren's life revolves around pychology, so one should not read this book unless they love that topic, or are in need of an emotional story. I highly recommend this to anyone in the mental health or helping professions.

Rating:
Summary: A poetic journey to the heart of mental illness and healing
Review: This book is a gem of beautiful writing. As a student of psychology I seldom get to read a book of such sensitivity about the difficult subject of chronic mental illness. Slater elevates her subject to the spiritual realm simply through the love she obviously brings to doing therapy. I'd read anything written by this author - her style is evocative, surprising and lavishly imaginative. Lauren Slater is a unique voice in the field of psychology.