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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Psychologists Write: Gerald Alan Fox

17/10/2015

 
I first embarked on a career in pharmacy on a P&O liner, followed by running a small group of pharmacies. The rare combination of pharmacy and psychology degrees led me to work with pharmaceutical manufacturers in the UK and Europe on psychotropic medicine and registration files. Concerned by the illegal drug scene, and the cavalier but legal use of tranquillisers and anti-depressants and sleeping tablets, I helped set up a drug helpline, a benzodiazepine dependency group, and gave a series of talks, on prescribing those drugs, to doctors in general practice (GPs) and hospital psychiatric units. I practised psychotherapy for over thirty years. I began analytically after two years at the receiving end and gradually moved towards gestalt and insight directed therapies eventually combining all disciplines with CBT. This eclectic approach adapted well to individual needs and tended to shorten the course of treatment.
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On retirement, my desire to write about my patients conflicted with the need to protect their privacy – a dilemma. Factual reports even with disguised identities carried some risk of exposure, so why not go the whole hog and fictionalise all the material? I did precisely that by incorporating items from case histories and life in general, in disguise. A Bird Stuck on the Sky is the result.

The core elements of actual cases, woven into this book, do not lose their intrinsic impact. All the characters are fictional including the central figure Mike, a cognitive behavioural therapist. The many scenarios that confront him are inevitably drawn from my own experiences in life. He and his wife are burdened with psychological problems and obsessive personalities – again based on real cases I’ve seen in psychotherapy. Testing situations, augmented by Mike’s patients’ trials, set him on a journey of self-discovery. To those patients – not fictional to me – I owe my eternal gratitude for teaching me so much over the years.

I initially designed my book to give students a taste of therapy in practice. It can, however, be read simply as a novel or as a related collection of short stories. Its more covert themes will intrigue practitioner, student or patient – or anyone interested in psychology.
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Set like a jigsaw puzzle the single first chapter of Part One is the boxed challenge. In Part Two, the main narrative, assorted stories serve as jigsaw pieces. Clues and a covert repetitive motif hint at connections and thread together a diverse pastiche. Each chapter has cognitive and subliminal clues to help solve Mike’s problems which will test the reader’s powers of observation. The narrative can almost be viewed as Mike’s own therapy sessions. The full picture emerges when the last pieces are discovered in Part Three’s final chapters.

A Bird Stuck on the Sky
This story examines how seemingly complex conditions can be resolved through discussion and interpretation; and how we all struggle to resolve our personal battles the best way we know how.

The Storyline
Mike is a therapist who struggles with a dark secret of his own and acrophobia. Helen, his wife, is obsessed by a family tragedy. He ignores the unwritten law of professionals not to attempt treating personal matters.


He successfully helps resolve some unusual cases. One patient believes the devil visits her. Another feels persecuted by strangers. What generates a lady’s recurrent unsettling dream of flying onto an island? Why is one man afraid to undertake long journeys from home? Why does a wife's dress terrify her husband?  Mike discovers fascinating answers in these and many other cases.

But Mike’s futile efforts to resolve his own problems contrast with his competence with patients. Trapped in a mind-set and incapable of seeing the wood he puts his ‘happy family’ marriage – and more – in danger. Will he escape from his rigid approach to his troubles in time to avoid disastrous consequences?

Read the review of A Bird Stuck on the Sky in The Psychologist.

Thank you, Gerald, for sharing your experiences of integrating  psychology and fiction.

Follow the link to find other psychologists who have published a novel.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
Jeanne Lombardo link
17/10/2015 11:55:10 pm

Maybe I delved into this auto-review because the main character reminds me of my husband, a psychology professor with OCD tendencies who, while driving alongside the plunging cliffs of Big Sur, had a panic attack that nearly took us over the edge. Or maybe I resonated with the agitated wife. Then again, perhaps it was simply because I feel I could get into the story of a guy who believes that yes, Virginia, knowing how the mind works really does help people think better and lead happier lives. Thanks to you Anne for hosting this author--a nice variation on your usual posts (which are nonetheless excellent and edifying.) And thanks Mr. Fox for this review. The structure you worked out sounds like an effective way to get at your fascinating but prickly topic.

Annecdotist
18/10/2015 11:17:12 am

Thanks, Jeanne, interesting that it resonated so acutely for you. This is actually the fourth in a series of psychologist writers, and your comment was a timely reminder that I'd missed off the link to the others (now rectified). But who's Virginia? Not the esteemed Ms Woolf?

Jeanne Lombardo link
18/10/2015 04:46:35 pm

Hi Anne. The Virginia reference was just a throwback to that old line, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause." We use it on this side of the pond when assuring someone of the veracity of an idea they don't want to accept. I used it here to underscore the idea that for some folks psychology is just as fantastical as Santa Clause. I was at a family gathering a while back where several cousins were making disparaging remarks about psychology, how it just stuck in their craw the way those know-it-all psychiatrists and psychologists thought they could see into your mind and tell you how you were thinking... hogwash! This came after a little spiel on my part on some of my psychologist husband's ideas. :-/ Wow, resistance to science and a rather boorish violation of social niceties in one shot :-) Anyway...I have been following your series, almost always reading your posts but not taking the time to comment. Trying to rectify that, while still sustaining enough discipline to get out quickly and back to my own work :-)

Annecdotist
18/10/2015 07:01:01 pm

Thanks for explaining, Jeanne, I hadn't come across that one before. It's amazing how good we are at rationalising our rejection of facts we don't like. Although sometimes that's all too easy with psychology, as there's always another angle from which to look at it.
Thanks for reading. I agree, it can be quite hard to keep up with all the stuff on our various blogs.

Norah Colvin link
21/10/2015 02:00:50 pm

Hi Anne and Gerald, I think I'd enjoy this one. Reminds me a little of the Stephen Grosz book through which we initially connected, Anne. The dilemma of fact and fiction, privacy and public is an interesting issue from writers from service professions. I like the sound of Mike's underlying "jigsaw" problem. I do like solving puzzles. Is it available as an audiobook? I love it when the author reads their own work. (Hint!)

Annecdotist
22/10/2015 04:12:56 pm

Thanks, Norah, hopefully Gerald will pop over here and let you know about the audio.

Voula link
4/11/2015 07:26:15 am

Fascinating post Gerald and Anne.... That book sounds right up my street, speaking as another psychologist/author...... Off to Amazon right now! Voula

Annecdotist
6/11/2015 09:46:17 am

Result! Great to enable writerly psychologists to connect via my blog.


Comments are closed.
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    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

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