An Improbable Psychiatrist by Rebecca Lawrence review – doctor turned patient

A brave memoir from a psychiatrist with severe mental illness that describes a failing system from within

This brave memoir by apsychiatrist who has severe mental illness shows how lost and confused psychiatry and its patients have become. Future readerswill be amazed, we must hope,by how poorly we understood and how ineffectively wetreated the troubled mind.

Rebecca Lawrence has experienced recurrent and horrendous depressions throughout her life, mixed with periods of elevated mood. Despite multiple breakdowns and admissions to hospital, her determination and resilience, alongside the support of her remarkable husband, Richard, enable her to survive and prosper, becoming a consultant psychiatrist and mother of three.