To Wrestle with Demons

"To Wrestle with Demons" offers a glimpse of a psychiatrist's innermost thoughts about how his work affects his patients and himself, and also reflects the society in which we live. Ths collection of columns originally appeared in "The Washington Post". Describing the unconscious as music, "a silent and explosive score", Dr. Ablow recalls the process of helping patients ferret our the past from the deep recesses of their minds. He describes the lonely man who, gaining a sense of security from hearing voices, refuses the medication that would take them away...the depressed woman whose extreme dependence on others is rooted in a violent and abusive childhood...the doting husband whose obsessive devotion to his ill wife harks back to the tragic loss of a childhood friend. In delving into the minds of his patients, Dr. Ablow must also confront himself. He speaks with candour about the guilt he feels about exchanging empathy for money, his struggle to help a homeless veteran, and the embarrassment of warning a mother of her son's intent to kill her. Through his eyes, the reader confronts a patient's suicide and a close colleague's murder.
Discussed here, among many issues, are poverty, the insanity defence patients rights, sexual malpractice, and changing medical economics. Captured here is the critical moment at which psychiatry now finds itself - attempting to integrate technology with spirituality, science with the soul, and economics with empathy.