annethology
  • Home
    • About Annethology
    • About me >
      • A little more about me
    • About my books
    • Author talks
    • Contact me
    • Forthcoming events
    • World Mental Health Day
    • Privacy
    • Sign up for my newsletter
  • Sugar and Snails
    • Acknowledgements
    • Blog tour, Q&A's and feature articles >
      • Birthday blog tour
      • S&S on tour 2022
    • Early endorsements
    • Events >
      • Launch photos
      • Launch party videos
    • in pictures
    • Media
    • If you've read the book
    • Polari
    • Reading group questions
    • Reviews
    • In the media
  • Underneath
    • Endorsements and reviews
    • Launch party and events
    • Pictures
    • Questions for book groups
    • The stories underneath the novel
  • Matilda Windsor series
    • Matilda Windsor >
      • What readers say
      • For book groups
      • Interviews, articles and features
      • Matty on the move
      • Who were you in 1990?
      • Asylum lit
      • Matilda Windsor media
    • Stolen Summers >
      • Stolen Summers reviews
  • Short stories
    • Somebody’s Daughter
    • Becoming Someone (anthology) >
      • Becoming Someone (video readings)
      • Becoming Someone reviews
      • Becoming Someone online book chat
    • Print and downloads
    • Read it online
    • Quick reads
  • Free ebook
  • Annecdotal
    • Annecdotal blog
    • Annecdotal Press
    • Articles >
      • Print journalism
      • Where psychology meets fiction
    • Fictional therapists
    • Reading and reviews >
      • Reviews A to H
      • Reviews I to M
      • Reviews N to Z
      • Nonfiction
      • Themed quotes
      • Reading around the world
  • Shop
    • Inspired Quill (my publisher)
    • Bookshop.org (affiliate link)
    • Amazon UK
    • Amazon US
    • books2read

About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

What’s your favourite novel about mental health?

8/10/2019

6 Comments

 
Having spent the bulk of my wage-earning life in mental health care, it’s not surprising that the theme crops up in my writing. But, as a reader, my professional experience can make me more picky. For World Mental Health Day this week, I’m asking for your favourite novels about mental health, sharing some of my own reading recommendations and illustrating how I’ve drawn on the theme in my fiction. Continue reading also for news of how to be in with the chance of winning a signed copy of my next novel, which is set in a psychiatric hospital in the process of closing down.
Picture
Picture
For World Mental Health Day 2015, I wrote about mental health in fiction across the lifespan, from childhood to old age, sharing links to a dozen novels to illustrate the point. You can read that post by clicking on the image to the left.

Today I’m adding another four from last year’s reading: two featuring mental health as part of everyday existence; two about psychiatrists whose own disturbance mirrors that of their patients. Click on the image to go to the reviews. Thanks to publishers Legend Press, Peirene, Riverrun and JM originals for my review copies.
 
Tracey Emerson’s She Chose Me pits a disturbed and disturbing, yet nevertheless sympathetic, young woman with an impressive capacity to bend reality in her determination to fill the mother-shaped hole inside herself, alongside a middle-aged woman summoned back from her globetrotting life by her mother’s failing health.
 
Set in a superficially serene Icelandic fishing village, And the Wind Sees All by Guðmundur Andri Thorsson translated by Bjørg Arnadottir and Andrew Cauthery, is about the darkness beneath the surface and our collective reluctance to acknowledge it exists.

Picture
Picture
Jott by Sam Thompson is inspired by the author’s grandfather, a psychiatrist and lifelong friend of Samuel Beckett who helped the latter research his first novel by taking him onto the wards. Beckett aficionados will find much delight in the novel’s meta-fictions, but I admired it for the themes of failure, psychoanalysis and psychiatric hospital care.
 
With themes of incarceration, hunger, and the location of madness, Dark Water by Elizabeth Lowry is a multi-layered historical novel set in an asylum near Boston, on the island of Nantucket and a US naval ship.

Picture
Picture

And now to the theme of mental health in my own published fiction:

Middle-aged psychology lecturer, Diana Dodsworth has sacrificed her career prospects, and the opportunity for intimate relationships, in order to keep her past identity a secret. When she meets Simon at a dinner party, their connection over a shared interest in Cairo brings the promise of something more. Yet the conversation triggers unwelcome memories for Diana of the teenage decision that radically changed her life. As the relationship develops,
Picture
she becomes conscious of the widening gap between the woman she is and the woman she feels she ought to be. Now she must make another decision to embrace the part of her she’s been at pains to deny.
Diana feels such a sense of shame at the core of her identity, that she’s constructed a false self to hide her secret behind. She’s the kind of person who could potentially benefit from psychotherapy services, except that past experience has left her very suspicious of any kind of help. She’s self-harmed since childhood (with a rather vivid and visceral description of cutting in the first chapter) and found the conflicts of adolescence almost too much to bear. Unfortunately for Diana, her involvement in mental health services in the early 1970s, when a course of aversion therapy (albeit sympathetically administered) from a clinical psychologist and a “good talking to” from a psychiatrist weren’t a great deal of help. In contrast, the contemporary strand of the novel shows how care packages for those with similar identity issues have somewhat improved.


Picture
For most of his adult life, Steve has been a drifter, but now he’s decided to settle down. He buys a house, gets a job and persuades a gorgeous woman to move in with him. Life‘s perfect until she wants to start a family, and threatens to leave him if he won’t agree. He has an unusual and alarming idea about how to resolve the relationship crisis – and he happens to live in a house with a cellar.
As a mentally disordered offender, Steve disrupts our desire for a clear demarcation between victim and villain. His emotionally neglectful childhood has left him with abandonment issues, which he’s managed to side-step for most of his life by avoiding long-term bonds. Rather than addressing his own vulnerability, he locates it in others: in his mother’s dementia; in the psychiatric patients at his partner Liesel’s workplace; in her childhood trauma. Eventually, he pushes it as deep as it can go into the underground prison. As the novel is narrated from his point of view, the reader gets to follow him into the cellar of his mind. Steve certainly doesn’t see himself as a bad guy, yet, the more he tries to justify himself, the more deluded and dissociated he becomes.

Identity is the overarching theme of my short story collection, with a mixture of thought-provoking, playful and poignant perspectives on what it is to be. They explore how our minds and bodies, our relationships with friends and family, our work roles, culture, religion, nationality and much more, shape the someone we become.
Picture
Mental health issues arise in several stories in relation to social isolation, the challenge of new motherhood, the aftermath of sexual abuse and other kinds of trauma, extreme body dysmorphia, hallucinations and delusions, bereavement, eating disorders, burnout and emotional detachment. A couple are narrated from the point of view characters locked in alternative realities. (I hope that doesn’t seem too negative – I think my stories are a lot of fun!)
Picture
You can watch and listen to me reading from all three books in my new video:


Mental health is a major theme in my next novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, set against the backdrop of the longstay psychiatric hospital closures in the late 1980s and early 1990s, partly influenced by my own experience as a newly-qualified clinical psychologist. Here’s a taster – AKA the trouble with blurbs – and I’d welcome your feedback.


A brother and sister separated by bigotry and decades of deceit.

Henry was six when he waved goodbye to his glamorous grown-up sister; he’s put his life on hold awaiting her return.

Never mind what others say, Matty knows she’s a society hostess in a stately home.

Janice wants to put the world to rights, but she needs to sort herself out first.

As the asylums prepare for closure, their paths intersect. Will Henry be reunited with his sister? Or will the buried secret of their childhood push them further apart?

When do high hopes become delusion? Can we ever rectify the injustice of the past?

I don’t yet have a publication date but, as soon as I do, I’ll be running a promotion exclusively for my email newsletter subscribers with opportunities to win a signed copy anywhere in the world. If you’re not already subscribed, why not register now? I promise I won’t spam you, but will email you around four times a year.
Picture
Don’t forget to share your mental health novel recommendations in the comments section below:
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.
6 Comments
Norah Colvin
8/10/2019 11:57:16 am

Is it appropriate to say 'Happy Mental Health Week', Anne? :)
I got excited when you said about a competition for a copy of your third novel. I was hoping you had a publication date. Soon, I hope.
I didn't listen to all of your new video. I'll have to try to come back with time to do so.
Your books show a great understanding of those who have suffered from dysfunctional families. Is that the most of us? Sometimes I think so.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
8/10/2019 05:08:30 pm

I don’t blame you not watching the whole of the video – I haven’t either! I was tight for time and wanted to get this out and I might try to redo it some time (I said try – probably won’t succeed) as I found the profusion of ‘em’s in the ad-libbing rather distracting and to have practised first. That said, I watched a webinar on email lists recently that irritated me in a different way – the presenter was much more confident in front of the camera than I am but wasted a lot of time saying how awesome everything was!
As for dysfunctional families, I’m lucky I was able to get paid for my expertise! They do say that one of the routes into writing is an unhappy childhood!

Reply
Charli Mills link
11/10/2019 10:49:55 pm

Norah and Anne,

Wallace Stegner places a positive spin on the subject of dysfunctional families and a writing career -- that we heal from such experiences through the writing process by applying order to the chaos of experience. Happy Mental Health Week! :-)

Anne Goodwin
14/10/2019 04:14:17 pm

If we're lucky!

Charli Mills link
11/10/2019 10:46:13 pm

Anne, I'm excited that your third novel is going to be published! Of all your characters, short stories and novels, Mathilde is my favorite, and she is squarely set in a novel about mental health. I just finished reading The Nickel Boys, not about mental health but a disturbing look at how reform schools were run by those with sick minds. I'm going to email you my thoughts on how the book was constructed and the ending. It's fascinating how incipits and exits contain the story and how an author chooses to tell it. As for other novels about mental health, I'm drawing a blank. But I appreciate the characters Brandon Sanderson creates in his fantasy novels, often giving them realistic bouts of anxiety or depression.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
14/10/2019 04:13:19 pm

Yes, Matilda needs to get out there, although she doesn’t yet have a concrete path!
Look forward to reading your thoughts on The Nickel Boys.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Free ebook: click the image to claim yours.
    Picture
    OUT NOW: The poignant prequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home
    Picture
    Find a review
    Picture
    Fictional therapists
    Picture
    Picture
    About Anne Goodwin
    Picture
    My published books
    entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice
    Picture
    My latest novel, published May 2021
    Picture
    My debut novel shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize
    Picture
    Picture
    My second novel published May 2017.
    Picture
    Short stories on the theme of identity published 2018
    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

    Underneath Underneath
    reviews: 24
    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

    Becoming Someone Becoming Someone
    reviews: 8
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
    reviews: 4
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

    2022 Reading Challenge

    2022 Reading Challenge
    Anne has read 2 books toward their goal of 100 books.
    hide
    2 of 100 (2%)
    view books
    Picture
    Annecdotal is where real life brushes up against the fictional.  
    Picture
    Annecdotist is the blogging persona of Anne Goodwin: 
    reader, writer,

    slug-slayer, tramper of moors, 
    recovering psychologist, 
    struggling soprano, 
    author of three fiction books.

    LATEST POSTS HERE
    I don't post to a schedule, but average  around ten reviews a month (see here for an alphabetical list), 
    some linked to a weekly flash fiction, plus posts on my WIPs and published books.  

    Your comments are welcome any time any where.

    Get new posts direct to your inbox ...

    Enter your email address:

    or click here …

    RSS Feed


    Picture

    Tweets by @Annecdotist
    Picture
    New short story, “My Dirty Weekend”
    Picture
    Let’s keep in touch – subscribe to my newsletter
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Popular posts

    • Compassion: something we all need
    • Do spoilers spoil?
    • How to create a convincing fictional therapist
    • Instructions for a novel
    • Looking at difference, embracing diversity
    • Never let me go: the dilemma of lending books
    • On loving, hating and writers’ block
      On Pop, Pirates and Plagiarism
    • READIN' for HER reviews
    • Relishing the cuts
    • The fast first draft
    • The tragedy of obedience
    • Writers and therapy: a love-hate relationship?

    Categories/Tags

    All
    Animals
    Annecdotist Hosts
    Annecdotist On Tour
    Articles
    Attachment Theory
    Author Interviews
    Becoming Someone
    Being A Writer
    Blogging
    Bodies
    Body
    Bookbirthday
    Books For Writers
    Bookshops
    CB Book Group
    Character
    Childhood
    Christmas
    Classics
    Climate Crisis
    Coming Of Age
    Counsellors Cafe
    Creative Writing Industry
    Creativity
    Cumbria
    Debut Novels
    Disability
    Editing
    Emotion
    Ethics
    Ethis
    Family
    Feedback And Critiques
    Fictional Psychologists & Therapists
    Food
    Friendship
    Futuristic
    Gender
    Genre
    Getting Published
    Giveaways
    Good Enough
    Grammar
    Gratitude
    Group/organisational Dynamics
    Hero’s Journey
    History
    Humour
    Identity
    Illness
    Independent Presses
    Institutions
    International Commemorative Day
    Jane Eyre
    Kidney Disease
    Language
    LGBTQ
    Libraries
    Live Events
    Lyrics For The Loved Ones
    Marketing
    Matilda Windsor
    Memoir
    Memory
    Mental Health
    Microfiction
    Motivation
    Music
    MW Prequel
    Names
    Narrative Voice
    Nature / Gardening
    Networking
    Newcastle
    Nonfiction
    Nottingham
    Novels
    Pandemic
    Peak District
    Perfect Match
    Poetry
    Point Of View
    Politics
    Politics Current Affairs
    Presentation
    Privacy
    Prizes
    Psychoanalytic Theory
    Psychology
    Psycholoists Write
    Psychotherapy
    Race
    Racism
    Rants
    Reading
    Real Vs Imaginary
    Religion
    Repetitive Strain Injury
    Research
    Reviewing
    Romance
    Satire
    Second Novels
    Settings
    Sex
    Shakespeare
    Short Stories General
    Short Stories My Published
    Short Stories Others'
    Siblings
    Snowflake
    Somebody's Daughter
    Stolen Summers
    Storytelling
    Structure
    Sugar And Snails
    Technology
    The
    The Guestlist
    Therapy
    TikTok
    TNTB
    Toiletday
    Tourism
    Toxic Positivity
    Transfiction
    Translation
    Trauma
    Unconscious
    Unconscious, The
    Underneath
    Voice Recognition Software
    War
    WaSBihC
    Weather
    Work
    Writing Process
    Writing Technique

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Picture
    BLOGGING COMMUNITIES
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from havens.michael34, romana klee, mrsdkrebs, Kyle Taylor, Dream It. Do It., adam & lucy, dluders, Joybot, Hammer51012, jorgempf, Sherif Salama, eyspahn, raniel diaz, E. E. Piphanies, scaredofbabies, Nomadic Lass, paulternate, Tony Fischer Photography, archer10 (Dennis), slightly everything, impbox, jonwick04, country_boy_shane, dok1, Out.of.Focus, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Elvert Barnes, guillenperez, Richard Perry, jamesnaruke, Juan Carlos Arniz Sanz, El Tuerto, kona99, maveric2003, !anaughty!, Patrick Denker, David Davies, hamilcar_south, idleformat, Dave Goodman, Sharon Mollerus, photosteve101, La Citta Vita, A Girl With Tea, striatic, carlosfpardo, Damork, Elvert Barnes, UNE Photos, jurvetson, quinn.anya, BChristensen93, Joelk75, ashesmonroe, albertogp123, >littleyiye<, mudgalbharat, Swami Stream, Dicemanic, lovelihood, anyjazz65, Tjeerd, albastrica mititica, jimmiehomeschoolmom