Book Review: Recovering Sanity - Edward Povall

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Recovering Sanity: A Compassionate Approach to Understanding and Treating Psychosis
Edward M. Podvall, M.D.

Recovering Sanity is a compassionately written examination of the experience of psychosis and related mental illnesses. By presenting four in-depth profiles of illness and recovery, Dr. Edward Podvoll reveals the brilliance and chaos of the psychotic mind and demonstrates its potential for recovery outside of traditional institutional settings.

Dr. Podvoll counters the conventional thinking that the millions of Americans suffering from psychosis can never fully recover. He offers a bold new approach to treatment that involves home care with a specially trained team of practitioners. Using "basic attendance", a treatment technique inspired by the author's study of Buddhist psychology, healthcare professionals can use the tools of compassion and awareness to help patients recover their underlying sanity. Originally published as The Seduction of Madness, this reissue includes new introductory material and two new appendices.

Edward Podvoll's The Seduction of Madness is far and away the best written, most cogent, compelling history of our attempts to come to terms with the fascinating terrifying monster of madness. What kills most books about insanity is the almost irresistible urge to romance the disease and project our social, aesthetic, religious values onto such a big inviting canvas. Edward Podvoll's book is admirably free of such romance. We are all still a million miles away from knowing enough to say who will and who won't get better and what we can do to improve our odds but we will look long and hard without finding a better statement of the problem.

- Mark Vonnegut, author of The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity

The Seduction of Madness is a radical reconsideration of the psychotic mind and its never-lost potential for "islands of clarity" and self-recovery -- one which provides us with desperately needed, humane alternatives for understanding the psychotic patient. This is first a book for patients, families, friends, and physicians but it is equally an eloquent, and phenomenologically fascinating, meditation on the structure of mind.

- Oliver Sachs, M.D., author of Awakenings

Source: Recovering Sanity

This book is divided into two parts; the first focuses on four case studies of psychosis with depth, clarity and painstaking sensitivity. Anyone who has gone through such an experience is bound to recognize aspects of their own experience in the personal stories he has shared. What makes this book truly remarkable however is the second half of the book. Podvoll applies the same discriminating detail to this half of the book as the first as he details the creation of environments in which recovery can be fostered and "insights of clarity" -- always present -- can be encouraged, while discouraging the "asylum mentality" that inhibits recovery efforts.

I recommend it highly for those who are reaching for recovery for themselves or a loved one.

A brief excerpt from the introduction, for those who may be so inclined...

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A huge gulf separates conventional psychological treatment and the forms of therapy that emerge from the discipline of meditation. That gulf could be called the problem of the ego. The singular effect of meditation is the gradual softening and dissolving of one's self-absorption and egoistic impulses, a gradual relaxation and opening. But conventional psychology insists that one strengthen the notion of ego-identity through various strategies of self-assertion, self-empowerment, distinctiveness from others and personal security. From this point of view, sanity is related to the power of the ego's stability, or its failure to develop along the genetic and cultural plans that shape it. ...

In this book I have tried to bridge the differences between the Buddhist understanding of non-ego and the Western ideology of ego psychology by using the language of internal experience. The many clinical examples and case histories in this book point to the experience that the seed of madness is present in everyone, that there is a natural affinity for the mind to seek personal self-expansion, and it will create a continuous stream of illusions to do so. ...

There is also another seed within us, even more important than the seed of ego; it is the seed of sanity, a human instinct of clarity, present in everyone as a brilliant clear awareness capable of spontaneously cutting through the self-deception of madness. It is an instant of opening and wakefulness that brings one back from wandering in the world of dream. It usually requires some attentiveness even to notice such an event and certainly a background of meditative discipline makes these flashes of wakefulness more accessible by a variety of disciplines that cultivate body and mind synchronization.

Edward Povall, the author of Recovering Sanity has worked with a group of other professionals to create a modest community treatment program in Boulder, Colorado. It's possible that a rare few people might be able to utilize their services for themselves of a family member. However, what I think is truly remarkable about the book and the Windhorse Community approach is it presents a number of steps that can be adapted for one's personal use. For example, caregivers typically struggle with a heavy load but it might be possible for them to borrow on the team approach used in the Windhorse Community by drawing on local and family resources. Not only would this ease the strain on caregivers, it would also help foster social relationships for the individual in crisis. In turn, this can assist them in moving back out into the larger world when they are ready to do so.

I'm very impressed with the book and the Windhorse approach. Please take the time to read the brief excerpt from their website and to read additional information at their site if it appeals.


See also: The Windhorse Project: Recovering from Psychosis at Home