Review: My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward: A Memoir by Mark Lukach

4 stars for My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward: A Memoir by Mark Lukach.

This is a difficult book to read; not because it is boring or badly written, but because it is a blatantly honest outpour of a husband's innermost thoughts and beliefs and actions that do not sit well with me.

The husband thinks that there is a pill that can and will fix all mental problems. I know it must have been terrible to feel helpless and clueless but it is frustrating and traumatizing to see the husband sending his wife to the hospital and Psych Ward time and again, to be pinned down by orderlies to have medication injected into her body.

It is also equally disturbing to read about the mental health system as described in the book as it goes about its way of admitting and treating patients. It seems like a whole load of self-serving, profit driven structure where doctors dish out drugs too readily and think that they are above all, that their decisions are the best, when in fact, I don't see them putting the patients' interests at heart at all.

Overall, what I see mostly is a controlling husband who does not know how to give space, who suffocates the wife with well-intentioned but ill-managed care, who does not trust the wife to make her own choices and decisions, who tries to control and run the wife's life, and on top of it all, who believes medication and pills are the solution to anxiety, stress and depression.

The above said, at the end of the day, who am I to criticize the husband's beliefs and actions? It is after all his life to live and none of my business. Still, I am glad to have read this book, expressed my view and said my piece.

Review: Cracked: The Unhappy Truth about Psychiatry by James Davies

5 stars for Cracked: The Unhappy Truth about Psychiatry by James Davies.

The book is easy to read, thought provoking and it challenges what we think we know about psychiatry - the study and treatment of mental illness, emotional disturbance, and abnormal behaviour. It should be read by anyone who thinks there is a pill that will fix your problems, and by everyone who is concerned on the basic humanity and social well-being.

The official story we often hear is that psychiatry has the tools and knowledge at its disposal to help us when our lives break down. In reality, the psychiatry industry has often resorted to half-truths and cover-ups. The book addresses the pressing issues with psychiatry, breaks them down and tells it all.

- Why has psychiatry become the fastest-growing medical specialism when it still has the poorest curative success?

- Why are psychiatric drugs now more widely prescribed than almost any other medical drugs in history, despite their dubious efficacy?

- Why does psychiatry, without solid scientific justification, keep expanding the number of mental disorders it believes to exist — from 106 in 1952, to 374 today? What is going on?

- What role does our biology play in our mental distress?

The truth is never far behind. There is no smoke without fire. It is an unfortunate but ugly truth. And the truth is, psychiatry can be explained simply as the lure of power and money putting the pursuit of pharmaceutical riches and medical status above that of patients’ well-being.

Written to create and heighten awareness, this book educates and enables people to be better informed about the current state psychiatry is in; to get away from the escalating craze for psychiatric drugs and diagnoses. As the proverb goes "all that glitters is not gold", we need to be wary of what we read in the news and decide for ourselves what the truth is.

If you are not already aware of the numerous doctors being enticed by huge pharmaceutical rewards into creating more disorders and prescribing more pills, of the psychiatric organization concealing information and distorting the facts, this book is a good place to start.

Review: Hiroshima: The Autobiography of Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa

4.5 stars for Hiroshima: The Autobiography of Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa.

Keiji Nakazawa was born on 14 March 1939 in Hiroshima, Japan and was 6 years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on his hometown.

This book is an account of his life during and after the second world war: fleeing the hell of the atomic bomb in a bustling city wiped out and buried in corpses, overcoming with great difficulty the postwar shortage of food and struggling against all odds to survive.

There is much horror, sadness, anger and unhappiness in Nakazawa's narratives. But there is also hope and optimism as he seek ways to channel his pent-up frustration and bitterness about the war and aftermath of the atomic bomb through the world of manga to create awareness for the next generation.

Review: To Hell and Back: The Last Train from Hiroshima by Charles Pellegrino

4 stars for To Hell and Back: The Last Train from Hiroshima by Charles Pellegrino.

Annihilation of mankind. This is what comes to the forefront of your mind as I flip to read the first few pages and take on the journey from Hiroshima to Nagasaki on the last train.

This is not a book about the geostrategic issues of great power conflict, nor is it about the rights and wrongs of dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima (6 Aug 1945) and Nagasaki (9 Aug 1945) in Japan.

This is an insightful and powerful book on the subject of bombings. It focuses on the singular mission of chronicling the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people before and after the A-bomb. It brings to life, the experience of the people and the endless aftermath. It transports readers into a world that is frightening and painful.

The horrors as told in the book are based on eyewitness accounts supported by knowledgeable and reasonable guesses about the unknown, such as what happened to the people who disappeared at the hypocenters. It is hell for those who died. It is also hell for those who survived; the burdens the hibakusha carried, and the prejudices against them seemed to know no end. The social stigma attached to being an atomic bomb survivor is so strong in Japan that to live on, these people had to hide their identities and disappear. The scary truth is that it still is a continuing sad story of survivor suffering seven decades on.

Nuclear war is an often predicted cause of the extinction of humanity. If World War III ever come to be one day, it can and in all likelihood will be the cause of total annihilation of humankind.