Customer Reviews

Not made of wood: A psychiatrist discovers his own profession

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I just finished reading this book and I am impressed. I immediately decided to write a review but as I am not confident that a review written by myself, a lay person who reads book reviews rather than writes them, will adequately represent Mr. Foudraine's work, I am basically quoting the publisher's information on the jacket.

The book relates Jan Foudraine's sensitive and personal account of his discovery how he could help people who are labeled "schizophrenic," and of his subsequent rebellion against his training in psychiatry. "Part narrative, part scientific work, part testimony," NOT MADE OF WOOD shows the steps that led to Foudraine's conclusion that "those who are called 'psychotic' or 'schizophrenic' can teach us most about the human condition.

Retracing the pattern of his professional evolution, Dr. Foudraine describes his understanding of schizophrenia as an intricate defense system erected by a battered, troubled psyche in response to a destructive social environment. He illuminates the puzzling behavior of his patients, and gives tribute to the prominent psychiatrists who have contributed to his education. His summaries of the major concepts of Freud, Jung, Adler, Szasz, Laing, Erikson, Goffman, and many others offer the reader a nontechnical course in the history of psychiatry, its opposing schools of thought, and current debates about it.

Foudraine ends his odyssey to understanding with an appeal for the abandonment of the traditional methods of treating schizophrenics and for the adoption of the "open ward" in clinics - which would blur the distinction between staff and patients and encourage honest relationships; expand the therapeutic function of the paraprofessional; decrease the patient's institutional dependency; and help to eliminate modern technological barbarities such as electroshock therapy and massive doses of tranquilizers.

Dr. Foudraine's refreshing and challenging contribution to psychiatric literature reminds both professional and layman that schizophrenics, however apparently bizarre and absurd their behavior, are decidedly "Not Made of Wood."