Evoking empathy, as noted in the introduction to this book, is much harder than simply evoking sympathy. It’s easy to make someone’s story seem sympathetic. It’s much harder for you to get to really feel the other person’s story, not out of a sense of despair so much as a sense of understanding and appreciation.
That’s what this heartfelt book accomplishes by wandering into the fields of mental illness, so often misunderstood, so often stigmatized and dismissed. This book provides first-person accounts of people with emotional disturbances and mental health issues, and does so in the best short story-telling tradition. Each story gives us a glimpse into the life of another person, a person who is living a life few of us can imagine. Each narrative is paired with a black-and-white photograph by the editor, who is a mother of a daughter with bipolar disorder.
The book contains 36 such vignettes, many of which will touch your heartstrings. The challenges faced by people who live daily with a mental illness are simply not contemplated by most of us. This book brings us face-to-face with these challenges in an engaging and inspiring manner. At the end of the it, you feel like you’ve gained real insight into the depths of mental disorders and how people deal with it every day.
Because each story is relatively short and the book is illustrated with exquisite photography, it’s an easy read. Some will find the photography as moving as the stories themselves, and you can count me among them.
If you know someone in your life who grapples with a mental health issue, or just wondered what it must be like to wake up every day dealing with a deep, dark depression, this is a book worth your time. I will recommend it to everyone who asks me what it’s like to experience a mental illness, because it paints a picture far more clearly than almost anything else I’ve come across.
Softcover, 144 pp.
Psych Central's Recommendation: Worth Your Time! +++
Your Recommendation (if you've read this book):
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Want to buy the book or learn more?
Check out the book on Amazon.com!
Grohol, J. (2008). I Thought I Could Fly: Portraits of Anguish, Compulsion and Despair. Psych Central. Retrieved on May 26, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/2008/i-thought-i-could-fly-portraits-of-anguish-compulsion-and-despair/
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 7 Nov 2008
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
