Items related to Where the Roots Reach for Water: A Personal & Natural...
Synopsis
Jeffery Smith was into his 8th year as a psychiatric case manager when his own struggles with clinical depression began. Eventually, all his prescribed antidepressant medications proved ineffective. He describes what happened after he decided to give them up, & sets out to get at the essence of -- using the old term for depression -- melancholia. Provides us with a "natural history" of this ancient illness. Draws on centuries of art, writing, & med. treatises inspired by the illness & its near kin, the melancholic temperament. Tells numerous instructive stories of people who fitted their lives to melancholia before the advent of modern drugs & therapies. "A provocative & highly original memoir."
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Jeffery Smith was born in West Virginia and was raised just across the Ohio River in the Allegheny foothills of Monroe County, Ohio. He now lives with his wife, Lisa Werner, in the Appalachian foothills of Coshocton County, Ohio. This is his first book.
From Kirkus Reviews
A provocative, poetic foray into melancholia from both a personal and historical perspective. While working as a psychiatric caseworker in Missoula, Minn., first-time author Smith is thrust into a depression that even the newest antidepressants cant alleviate. In attempting to understand his melancholia, Smith researches this mystifying condition, which continues to afflict people worldwide. Regardless of how it originates, concludes Smith, clinical depression results from biochemical changes in the brain. And half of those with one episode relapse within 18 months, while some will be plagued by depression for life. Smith is particularly effective in describing his own depression, when everyday details overwhelm him and his only company is ``Mr. Shoulder,'' who monitors his every thought and mood to the point of paralyzing him. He writes ``that my life felt distant even to me.'' Also intriguing is Smiths chronicle of societys changing views of depression. In Renaissance Europe, in Elizabethan England, and to the 19th-century Romantics in Germany and Great Britain, depressive illness was deemed a great gift. People even feigned melancholia, because it was considered an experience that deepened and enriched ones soul. With our societys emphasis on productivity, depression is regarded as an unwelcome intrusion that is costly to corporate America. The contemporary solution is a quick fix that allows expedient return to the marketplace. And its this quick chemical fix that troubles Smith. Only when he abandons medication and allows his illness to awaken him spiritually and metaphysically does he conquer his depression. Smith continues to take jobs to help others with psychological problems and brain injuries, and is critical of patients families ``who preferred the memory [of the victim when healthy] to the present reality[and whose] spouses had all filed for divorce.'' Brimming with insight and intelligence, an endearing memoir. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherFarrar, Straus & Giroux
- Publication date1999
- ISBN 10 0756754399
- ISBN 13 9780756754396
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages292
- Rating
(No Available Copies)
Search Books: Create a WantIf you know the book but cannot find it on AbeBooks, we can automatically search for it on your behalf as new inventory is added. If it is added to AbeBooks by one of our member booksellers, we will notify you!
Create a Want
