4 comments about The Day Room: A Memoir of Madness and Mending.

1. I found The Day Room to be 80, no 90% terrific. The writer, who suffers with the chronic pain and depression that go along with it, is met with doors shut in her face by one professional after another. She does a nice job of conveying the sense of insanity, and eventually rage, that such treatment invokes. The people who occupy space and time with her along the way -- the spouse, the other patients, and such -- come to life in the book, and in the reader's mind. I was disappointed in the legal process -- in the outcome, in the lack of legal expertise (falsified records, and they weren't challenged with certified copies of the originals?), and a bit in the writing. But, overall, I found it a great read. As with one of the reviewers on the back cover, I wrapped it up in one sitting. Thank you for sharing your heart, your courage.



2. THIS TITLE JUST FITS KATHLEEN CROWLEYS BOOK. NO MATTER WHAT SHE WENT THROUGH SHE KEPT THE FAITH AND FOUGHT STRONG! I RELATED WITH HER THROUGH THE WHOLE BOOK. SHE MADE ANOTHER CHRONIC PAIN SUFFERER(MYSELF) FEEL YOUR NOT THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD DEALING WITH THE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND COURT SYSTEM AND MOST OF ALL PAIN BY YOURSELF! I LOVED HER COURAGE AND STRENGTH THROUGH IT ALL. I ONLY WISH I COULD HAVE A WAY OF SPEAKING WITH HER NOW TO SEE HOW SHE IS DOING. IT WAS NEVER MENTIONED IN HER BOOK BUT IT SOUNDS AS IF SHE SUFFERS FROM REFLEX SYMPATHEIC DYSTROPHY ALL HER SYMPTOMS MATCH THAT DX. I HOPE AND PRAY ALL IS WELL WITH HER AND THANK HER IMMENSELY FOR BRINGING HER STORY TO OTHER CHRONIC PAIN SUFFERERS. AND MAKING ALL CHRONIC PAIN SUFFERS NOT FEEL SO ALONE. THANKYOU KATHLEEN CROWLEY!



3. Odd layout style of this book is confusing, sections end in the middle of the page then start up again at the top of the next page. Many issues are brought up, but never resolved, for instance Ms Crowley envisons being bathed in blood and body parts, but we never find out why. Ms Crowley says her doctor tells her many fine analogies, but she doesn't share any of them with us. Book could use some serious editing.



4. An unbelievable story of hope and strength! I couldn't put it down even though I started it already late at night--thank you for a wonderful book.

1 comments about Hamilton Bailey: A Surgeon's Life.

1. How can you imagine that a surgeon, who was born more than a hundred years ago, managed to have his name preserved in surgical textbooks still bearing his name nowadays? "Hamilton Bailey " is such a legendary name. Bailey never had the manual dexterity required for a surgeon. Early in his career, he got abscess of the hand which led to the amputation of his left index finger (as was the treatment in the pre-antibiotic era). He was poor at socialising and he was never welcome by patients and colleagues. He even had intractable manic-depressive illness and had a close shave from leucotomy. The secret of his tremendous productivity in textbook writing must be indebted, at least in part, to his wife Veta. This book is very enjoyable to read ... the only difficulty for me is to overcome the tons of unfamiliar names and places!

1 comments about Confessions of a Modern Dentist.

1. In this book, his story described love, happiness, and determination. He discussed personal experiences that scarred him for life, but serendipity played a role and helped him find his loving wife and discover his career as a dentist. He discussed his life as he struggled through dental school with his wife and two children. There were stories about working as the staff dentist at a community clinic and proceeding on to open his own practice. He discussed the transition and made it clear that it isn't easy to just start your own practice. Dr. Shinn spent some time substituting at the Seattle/King County Jail as a dentist. His practice started slow, he split up the day to incorporate a variety of patients. He was able to see children, patients in need of general dentistry, and oral surgery. He also offered inducements to people to come into his practice. Later on, Dr. Shinn discussed how he was able to find his happiness by providing healthcare, supplies and disease prevention education to remote areas of the world where there is little or no access to it, such as orphanages and refugee camps.
   I found this book to be inspirational. I'm in the process of applying to dental school in order to hopefully be able to help community in the future. However, after reading this book my eyes have been opened to possibility of being able to help others who are less fortunate outside of community yet still practice dentistry and not be limited to the local office.

No comments about Heroes With a Thousand Faces: True Stories of People with Facial Deformities & Their Quest for Acceptance (Cleveland Clinic Guides) (Cleveland Clinic Guides).

5 comments about Bettelheim: A Life And A Legacy.

1. As a former student at Dr. Bettelheim's school in Chicago, I found this book to be very inadaquate in its description of Dr. Bettelheim. This man did a great deal of harm to the students attending this school and was not the savior which Ms. Sutten would like him to be potrayed as. His methods of treatment can be compared with how the German Nazis treated their concentration camp victims. He did beat the students a great deal and fear was a common, shared, feeling which most of the kids felt towards him. His use of imtimadation towards the children, as well as the staff, was complete. Since Ms. Sutton was not a student at the Orthogenic School, of course she would not know the things that went on there. If Bettelheim was alive today, he would be arrested for child abuse, and this is a fact that Ms. Sutton doesn't want to admit.



2. This book moved me deeply. Not only did it tell me a fascinating story about a man whose life span the century, but it moved me deeply. It's not a funny book, but it is a riveting one. Rather than pretending to know it all, the author takes her reader on an investigative journey: Who was the true Bettelheim? She shares her doubts as well as her discoveries some of which I shall never forget. And in the end, everything seems to fall into place - the good, the bad, everything human, I guess.



3. The reviewers who praised this book didn't check the facts and neither did the author. In fact, the book is highly inaccurate both in its facts and conclusions. The book merely applies the same pseudopsychoanalysis as the subject applied to his "patients," including me.

   I was a source for the book and nearly everything in it about me is totally wrong. I shared considerable information with the author following a 1990 article in the Washington Post I wrote detailing Bettelheim's unsupported claims and physical and psychological abuse of his wards. The author promised that I could control anything that appeared in the book about me. But the book came out with all sorts of unsourced untruths about me that the author never bothered to check with me. From the looks of them, I suspect some she made up and some she heard from Bettelheim's defenders who worked at the school and broke their professional code of silence to reveal "information" about a "patient." It evidently never occured to the author that these people may have wanted to smear me to save their own reputations. The author even had the nerve to state as fact how I was feeling, which is amazing because she never asked me. In fact, I never felt the way she said I felt.

   The book just amounted to the same type of Freudian nonsense I was subject to at Bettleheim's school -- someone else telling you that you don't feel what you feel -- you really feel what I tell you you feel. The book even managed to completely misrepresent what I wrote in the Washington Post. I have been quoted in many publiciations on this and other matters but I have never seen anything so far from the truth. The author didn't like my thesis and couldn't get me on the facts, so she apparently made up her own.

   Immediately upon the book's publication, I notified the publisher by letter of the book's errors, but the publisher never corrected them in subsequent printings. And no one even had the decency to answer my letter. To this very day, the company continues to sell a book it knows is inaccurate.




4. I simply wish to say that there would no controversy if thoughtful, sensitive people were in control of their own emotions and were objective enough to put Bruno Bettelheim and his times in perspecitve. This is one of the implicit themes of the book.The author, a journalist, has study the facts and has the intuition to understand as much as any biographer can at this time a complex suffering personality. I hope only that the time will come when such a understanding can be objectively drawn. But meanwhile the biographer has made at least this attentive and by no means unskeptical reader understand the controversy and the facts of the case are not always one and the same...



5. The Uses of Enchantment (Penguin Psychology)
   
   First, it is good to get all evidence and opinion out and above board. This should be true of everyone no matter if one is an ethnical or religious person Jew or Christian. Then, there is a matter of how this should be done? Where it should be done? When it should be done? Why? For instance, if persons or person passionate few agrieved against a group or political body they should attack prudently but immediately. Strike when the iron is hot as the old adage goes. No time to waste! Whistle blowing on companies are best done by individual(s) when their is enough information and evidence to find guilty in a court of law. And so should it be with doctors and hospitals, persons and people of positions of extra-ordinary trust and power over others. Not only for the patient-personal reasons but so the rest of us can be aware of malpratice and the knowledge that all that is white and professional fascade is NOT okay. Put on guard by those who are insiders. However, and this is how the case of trying to destroy the reputation and thereby Dr. Bettelheim was done, it was done long after the fact, after the doctor was dead(and as it handily happened for his detractors by his own hand) and in such a dramatic concerted media trial like ganging

5 comments about Hope: A Story of Triumph.

1. Hope is an inspiration to all! No matter what a persons present or past life situation, from the terminally ill, to those suffering through deep loss, to those of us who are blessed to be healthy. (As am I.) Joel has opened up his life and struggles to us to show that it is indeed possible to triumph over whatever life has to offer, transforming perceived diversities into tools for tremendous personnel growth. If you are as blessed as I am, to be in great health and have a great life, Hope will most assuredly fill you with gratitude for the blessings bestowed upon you. A wonderful book. Thank you Joel!



2. i read this after reading Joel's first book "signals". i read it at a time in my life when i was in despair, and this book helped my immeasurably. i would recommend it and encourage everyone to read it



3. After reading Hope I realized how insignificant the glitches (which I thought were problems)in my life really are. Knowing the suffering people with AIDS go through and everything they must endure really put things in perspective. I believe there is a message in this book for any reader who is seeking a greater understanding for compassion, inner peace and what the true meaning of unconditional love really is. When I read Hope I must admit, I cried, however the strenghts of the author filled me with light and "hope" for anything I might encounter in the future. Thank you Joel, you're truly an Angel in the lives of many people. Thank you HOPE for giving me the message I needed to hear at the time I read you.



4. Joel Rothschild relates how he learned from others how to find "new meaning in times of mortal danger...I took those lessons to heart and began to search for ways to reinvent myself and give new meaning to my life."
   
   Each of us has the opportunity to reinvent and redefine our lives when going through a major challenge or loss in our lives. Often, we don't seize it willingly, and instead let ourselves walk unconsciously through our healing. Joel Rothschild offers a path of awareness, a path of conscious choice for living a life with meaning, purpose and grace.
   
   Through his own multitude of challenges, Mr. Rothschild has given us the gift of wisdom gained the hard way, or shall I say, the "heart" way. No other book that I have read in the last l0 years has stated so much, and so eloquently, what I have come to believe about life's lessons.
   
   All suffering and pain has meaning and purpose. For me, I have had to experience several life challenges to feel the truth of this statement, to my very core. In his book, Joel Rothschild illustrates this so beautifully, and we are elevated by his faith and trust in the life process.
   
   He states that "These days all people seem a little more beautiful." Thank you Joel for shining your light so brightly and allowing it to be the mirror for us to see ourselves more clearly!
   
   Marcia Breitenbach[...]



5. This is one of those amazing books that you can't put down! And although it can easily be read in one sitting, the insights and inspirations will stay with you for a lifetime.
   
   In "Hope", Joel Rothschild describes his life (his struggles & his joys) since he was diagnosed with full blown AIDS - which was nearly 15 years before the writing of this book! In it, he shares what he's learned about the importance of living each day as if it's your last, as well as how your thoughts have a direct impact on your experiences - "as a man thinketh, so he is...".
   
   I would highly recommend this book to everyone - it is very uplifting, and has a lot to offer each & every one of us.
   
   Thank you Joel for taking the time to write this book!

5 comments about The Story of San Michele.

1. How gratifying to read the other reviews, and to learn that others have also experienced and loved this book at different times in their lives. The remarkable thing about it is how Dr. Munthe speaks to us in different ways at different ages. As a teenager, I was impressed by the passions, even though a lot of the details were above my head. In my late twenties, the way he tried to balance career and his love for San Michele was very meaningful. As a 44-year-old, I was impressed (and saddened) with the loneliness of Dr. Munthe's struggle, with really only his animals for company. While he speaks of friends, he shares little about them. And nothing about a lasting romantic involvement.

   We all have our San Micheles. They may not be homes, but they are ideals toward which we strive. But for me, it exists only in my mind. Dr. Munthe was in some ways very lucky, yet also cursed, to be able to bring it to life.

   The only frustrating aspect of "San Michele" is that it is, as its author notes, a fragment. I am interested to learn more of this fascinating man. Does anyone know if any biographies are in print, or in English? Thank you.




2. My father had mentioned this book to me as a teenager. I read portions of it then, but have always wanted to read it in full. Finally, I found a paperback edition and found an absorbing and thought stimulating book. Dr. Munthe's care of the sick, his love of animals and the characters he describes, all will stay in my memory. This is not a book that you read once. I plan to read it again and again. Hopefully I will be able to visit Villa St. Michele some day and see the beauty of the place that he saw. I hope to find a bound edition with the photographs.



3. I came to this strange and wonderful book without the slightest inkling of what it was about -- simply because it was in the recommended reading for many guidebooks about Italy. First and foremost, it is an autobiography of a great physician and animal lover who just happened to spend some years of his life on Capri.

   Autobiographies can make for strange reading, especially when there are obvious omissions. Although Axel Munthe frequently accuses himself of being a ladies' man, there is no mention of any love interest by name or even generic description. (That reminds me of film director Josef von Sternberg's FUN IN A CHINESE LAUNDRY, where we learn in passing that the author was married because of a cryptic mention in a subordinate clause 300 pages into the book.) Also missing is any mention of Munthe's childhood, although I understand there is at least one other autobiography written by him (MEMORIES AND VAGARIES), which I have not read.

   There is, however, one section that does not appear in any autobiography that I have ever seen: An anticipation of Munthe's Last Judgment in Heaven following his death, with St. Peter, Moses, Athanasius, and St. Francis joining in the discussion.

   STORY OF SAN MICHELE ranges from Paris to Lapland, Rome, Naples, Calabria, and Capri. We see duels, medical cases of wealthy women with imaginary diseases, demonic housekeepers, quacks, midwives, prostitutes, victims of cholera and earthquakes, brigands, shamans, and even an alcoholic ape. Munthe is a magnificent raconteur, and his book is a joy to read and reread.




4. How can one write a review of The Story of San Michele that comes close to doing justice to the book? There are many humorous episodes, such as The Giant and Mamsell Agata, touches of the macabre in the description of the cholera epidemic in Naples, misadventures, like the journey to Sweden accompanying a young man (then his corpse). There are also angry moments, as when his dog Tom is brutally kicked by the slimy Vicomte Maurice. Who could not be moved by the story of the boy John, who was rescued by Munthe but never lived long enough to find a loving home. It is a book that includes many memorable events in a life that was very full indeed. Many of the chapters in this book could be made into marvelous films, given the right adaptation.
   
   The Story of San Michele is very well written, to say the least, and the many people, events and personal feelings of the author combine to make this a special adventure. Perhaps most special of all is Axel Munthe's relationship to animals that allowed him to get close, even to "wild" animals and have a special relationship with them. He was a man who held nature and all life in special regard but was pragmatic in the face of illness and death.
   
   I have had a copy since 1988 and I have given Axel Munthe's book as a gift and been thanked for the introduction. I could not recommend this book highly enough.



5. I read this wonderful book as a young man back in the sixties and I have just ordered a new version to recapture its wonderful moments
   
   But I also saw the film version many years ago.
   
   No I would be wery exited if anyone could lead me to a DVD or VHS version of the film

2 comments about Daktari Yohana: An American Pediatrician in East Africa.

1. Dr. Hult has written a truly remarkable story of life as a missionary pediatrician in East Africa. His writing is at all times clear and concise. He brings to life an era in this former British colony then called Tanganyika. For those of us who were there, and who recall the people and places he writes about, it's a nostalgic trip into the past. But for those who weren't there, this book paints pictures that portray humor and pathos, successes and failures, adventure and routine, life and death in a primitive African culture. A must-read for everyone interest in missions, African culture, or just the people themselves.



2. Enjoyed reading my friend John's (and fellow writer),book on his African Experiences.

   His wife Adeline did a great job too.

No comments about Biogrphical Dictionary of Psychlogists, Psychiatrists and Psychotherapists.

No comments about Stoking the Fire: A Surgical Memoir of London.