Adrian Lockhart is a British clinical psychologist who has fled his failing marriage to work in a psychiatric hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, shortly after the civil war. Adrian is no knight in shining armour; even he wonders what he can offer a country where the entire population has been brutalised, and his efforts are impeded by structures he can't possibly understand. Yet this reflective outsider is an ideal literary vehicle to explore what remains of humanity in the aftermath of war.
While Adrian's ineffectiveness is no great advert for clinical psychology, I find him one of the most convincing fictional psychological therapists I've encountered so far. This might be down to the author's expertise in creating plausible characters, as well as her good sense in seeking professional advice, as noted in the acknowledgements. (As I mentioned in the introduction to this series of posts, psychologists and psychological therapists are appealing to writers, but can be hard to get right.) Although I've never worked abroad, or with those blunted by war, some of Adrian's experiences reminded me of the challenges of working as a psychologist in longstay psychiatric institutions in Britain, with the sense of overwhelming need and not yet having the right tools or structures to meet them. Perhaps the best he can do is listen to the stories of those able to tell them, and bear witness to the tragedy around him.
In that context, the ending didn't work so well for me, when he offers his friend, local surgeon Kai Mansaray, a potential remedy for the trauma that prevents him sleeping. It might be a case of letting the psychology dominate the story rather than support it: while the treatment, EMDR, is a recommended intervention for post-traumatic stress disorder, and one that a suitably trained psychologist might practice, the somewhat mechanical method seems quite a shift in tone from Adrian's previous approaches. However, those with a more immediate experience of trauma work may disagree with this reading and, either way, it's a small point in a psychologically astute and deeply moving novel.
More war trauma with the next in the series, I'm afraid, when I review Pat Barker's take on the treatment of shellshocked soldiers in the First World War in her 1991 novel, Regeneration. But I'll be posting on some jollier topics before then, starting with my reading pile in four or five days time. If you can't wait that long for something on the lighter side, check out this style blog for a very different take on the spirit of the people of Freetown, Sierra Leone.
In that context, the ending didn't work so well for me, when he offers his friend, local surgeon Kai Mansaray, a potential remedy for the trauma that prevents him sleeping. It might be a case of letting the psychology dominate the story rather than support it: while the treatment, EMDR, is a recommended intervention for post-traumatic stress disorder, and one that a suitably trained psychologist might practice, the somewhat mechanical method seems quite a shift in tone from Adrian's previous approaches. However, those with a more immediate experience of trauma work may disagree with this reading and, either way, it's a small point in a psychologically astute and deeply moving novel.
More war trauma with the next in the series, I'm afraid, when I review Pat Barker's take on the treatment of shellshocked soldiers in the First World War in her 1991 novel, Regeneration. But I'll be posting on some jollier topics before then, starting with my reading pile in four or five days time. If you can't wait that long for something on the lighter side, check out this style blog for a very different take on the spirit of the people of Freetown, Sierra Leone.
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