Finding Hope in the Lived Experience of Psychosis

This book offers first-person accounts of the experience of psychosis from the inside and the outside, through the eyes of two doctors, one of whom has experienced psychosis and both of whom have worked for decades in the field of psychiatry. Underpinned by rigorous academic analysis using an evocative duo-ethnographic approach, the book explores the cultural and subcultural influences from childhood onwards - both traumatic and resilience-building - that have shaped their lives. Both authors reflect on strategies they learned early in life for dealing with challenges, each managing to function at a high level while avoiding awareness of their vulnerability. They reflect on the potential dangers of using their expertise and position of power in psychiatry simply to diagnose mental illness and prescribe medication. The differences and similarities in the authors' stories provide a productive tension highlighting the complexities of this paradigm shift that is happening in psychiatry. Written in the form of two interacting memoirs, this book is of great interest to researchers, clinicians, and practicing psychologists, as well as a general audience with interest in psychosis.

Patte Randal, LRPC, MRCS, DPhil, has personal experience of recovery from psychosis. Her published research includes evaluation of a therapeutic intervention she developed for people with treatment refractory psychosis, and qualitative exploration of doctors' experience of mental health care. Retired from 30 years of clinical practice, she now promotes the implementation of 'The Gift Box', a collaborative resilience-building tool based on her 'Re-covery' model. Josephine Stanton, MA, MBChB, FRANZCP, is a psychiatrist working with adolescents, children, mothers and babies and their families. Her research has included qualitative studies of mothers who have killed their children, experiences of doctors who have become patients of psychiatrists, and referrers and young people's experience of engaging with an acute inpatient unit.

Part 1 Becoming Ourselves: Patte's Story (1951-1980, birth to 29); 1: Trust and Betrayal: The Divided Self; 2: Medical School - Skeletons, Cadavers, Gray's Anatomy and Desensitisation; 3: An Extreme State and a Sense of Pathway; 4: Research and Metaphor: Medical Nemesis; 5: Completing Medical School - Examining Reflexes; Josephine's Story (1954 - 1983, birth to 29); 6: Autonomy, Invulnerability, and a Commitment to Service; 7: Losing Sight of Science and Walking Away From Love; 8: Completing Medical School. Training to be Superhuman and Joining the Medical Club; Part 2 Becoming Doctors and Choosing Psychiatry: Patte's Story 1980-1995 (ages 29-44); 9: The Pleasant Smell of Aftershave and the Imagined Relief of Not Existing; 10: Worse than a Nuclear Winter; 11: Trust Betrayed: Confronting the Devil; 12: Evolving from Atheism - A Spiritual Emergency; 13: Defining the Essence of Psychiatry; Josephine's Story 1985-1995 (ages 31 to 41); 14: After Africa - Rekindling Passion for Medicine and Love; 15: Feeling Lost in Psychiatry and Found in Mothering; 16: Beginning to Find my Place in Psychiatry; 17: Jumping Through Hoops and Becoming a Patient; Part 3 Learning from Experience: Patte's Story 1996 to 2020 (ages 45-69); 18: A Herculean Task - 'Hope and a Future'; 19: Something Wrong on the Inside - The Paradox; 20: Finding my Voice ... And Losing It Again; 21: Side Effects, Spirituality, and Finding My Niche; 22: Disruption in Meaning-Making: The Last Extreme State; 23: Lighting a Candle for Justice; 24: Ways of Making Sense; 25: The Re-covery Model; 26: Living the Experience of Now - My Life Beyond Psychiatry; Josephine's Story 1998 to present day (ages 44-65); 27: Becoming a Psychiatrist - A Pathway of Impossible Jobs; 28: My Alternative Training - Pathway to Becoming the Psychiatrist I want to be; 29: Against All Odds: Maintaining My Personal and Professional Identity; Patte's Story; 30: Creative Energy and 'The Gift Box'; Epilogue: It's About Time.