What are you reading at the moment?

maidenfan

Grunfeld said:

I'm re-reading "Knots" by R.D. Laing.  But it's hard going!  A book of neurotic thinking.  It's exhausting.

Good choice, I read it back at Uni. I suggest reading his son's (Adrian Laing) book, R.D. Laing - A life.

It gives a fascinating insight into Ronnie, and places his books into a context which might otherwise have been obscured.

Sporky

I recently finished Greg Egan's Orthogonal series, which was just fantastic. Probably his best, and the science was integral to the storylines. Quite dense in places but a great set of stories.

Just started The Quantum Thief which is odd but readable.

Paul_C

Sporky said:

Just started The Quantum Thief which is odd but readable.

They work quite well as a series, I was thinking about re-reading them fairly soon, I'm currently reading an early M John Harrison - Pastel City, while half-reading two of his others.

Sporky

I didn't get very far through Light. It just didn't seem very coherent.

Paul_C

Sporky said:

I didn't get very far through Light. It just didn't seem very coherent.

I've read it (IIRC) three times, I'm not sure how coherent it is either

For reasons I can't quite put my finger on I like the way he writes and even though it mostly doesn't seem to go anywhere I like it.

Grunfeld

maidenfan said:

Good choice, I read it back at Uni. I suggest reading his son's (Adrian Laing) book, R.D. Laing - A life.

It gives a fascinating insight into Ronnie, and places his books into a context which might otherwise have been obscured.

Cheers.  I have it but not read it yet.  I got a few of his books and that one after recently listening to an old interview he did with Anthony Clare for BBC's "In The Psychiatrist's Chair" -- a very interesting man indeed.

boogieman

Got a load of books on my Amazon wish list for Xmas, including a couple of Ben Aaronovitch's and The Dirt. They were through recommendations from here, hope they're good.

maidenfan

Grunfeld said:

maidenfan said:

Good choice, I read it back at Uni. I suggest reading his son's (Adrian Laing) book, R.D. Laing - A life.

It gives a fascinating insight into Ronnie, and places his books into a context which might otherwise have been obscured.

Cheers.  I have it but not read it yet.  I got a few of his books and that one after recently listening to an old interview he did with Anthony Clare for BBC's "In The Psychiatrist's Chair" -- a very interesting man indeed.

Clare's account of Laing is interesting, I think it portrays quite a human side to Laing's somewhat painfull end to his life. Laing was one of the reasons I started thinking and working psychodynamically, I also recommend Mary Barnes and Joe Berke's book - Two Accounts of a Voyage through madness.

 I was fortunate enough to work with Joe for a period, supervision with Joe was both enlightening and inspiring, particularly when thinking about primitive mental states (here is quite an interesting paper - http://human-nature.com/free-associations/risk.html). Joe was one of the young medical students along with Morton Schatzman who lived and trained with Ronnie at Kingsley Hall.

ICBM

Currently reading Return Of A King by William Dalrymple - a history of the first Anglo-Afghan War in 1839-42. That might sound a bit dry (no Afghanistan pun intended!) and it is quite detailed and requiring concentration, but it's extremely interesting both in giving the lie to the idea of the British Empire being fairly well-organised and fundamentally decent in behaviour, and also has some parallels with the current mess. In fact it should be essential reading for any politician still thinking of interfering in a part of the world which has a long history of resisting outside rulers. Or anywhere, really.

Blueingreen

Just finished The Chairman, the second part of James Kaplan's massive bio of Sinatra (this volume alone comes in a 900+ pages with footnotes). Sinatra is one of my top 5 musical heroes but I almost wish I hadn't read this - I've read enough biographical stuff to know he could be a very unpleasant man but I was still shocked by the awfulness of some of the behaviour revealed here.  Kaplan is good though.  He's a decent, rather than exceptional, writer or prose but is fair-minded, manages to keep things readable and is good on the music itself.

Half-way through "The Silent Woman" by Janet Malcolm, a book about the problems of biography as illustrated by the competing versions and factionalism in the Sylvia Plath/Ted Hughes story.  Read about half of it so far and it's been outstandingly good.

Also about three quarters way through "Fishnet" by Kirsten Innes which won the Guardian's "Not the Booker" Prize.  By normal criteria it doesn't qualify as a good novel (it's not particularly well written, characterisation is thin etc).  Its claim to attention is its attitude to its subject matter, prostitution.  Innes (who has researched the subject) offers a feminist critique of the standard feminist position, that prostitution can only by understood in terms of victimhood, as something women need to be rescued from.

My wife also bought me Volume 1 of the new edition of T S Eliot's poems edited by Christopher Ricks and Jim McCue.  I already have all the poetry in other editions but this one is the definitive scholarly edition (the annotations take up way more space than the poems themselves).  

Snap

I am re reading all the Malazan books in order, brilliant stuff and even better second time round, so much I missed or overlooked on first read.

Most disappointing books I read were two by Hal Duncan - Vellum and Ink, which are 2 of a trilogy. Appalling IMO and massively derivative of Burroughs in his cut up period. The characters in Ink are a dead lift from Burroughs' characters in many of his books, as are the themes and some of the scenes. Too derivative to be an homage.
Can't believe he got away with it tbh. Really poor. However Hal Duncan wrote a novella, Escape From Hell, which is great in a B movie pulp thriller way, really enjoyed that.

Got Peter Hook's book on Joy DIvision too, so must start that. His book on the Hacienda was brilliant.

Thorby_Bislam

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. A gossipy re-telling of how scientists have come to learn as much as we do about ... well, everything. Not a science textbook by any means. Rather a series of potted histories of physics, geology, astronomy etc. Because Bryson is not a scientist himself, it doesn't get bogged down in scientific detail which a layman can't understand without years of study. It's more focussed on people. The pioneers of the various disciplines, their personalities, feuds and eccentricities as well as talking to people working in science today and relating what they tell him in a conversational tone. I've learned a lot. Mostly, that it's a wonder humans are still around and if we don't change our ways PDQ, we won't be for much longer.

PolarityMan

Snap said:

I am re reading all the Malazan books in order, brilliant stuff and even better second time round, so much I missed or overlooked on first read.

I can easily believe that, Im on my first read through, just finished Toll the Hounds and the books are definitely dense in terms of plotting, especially how many disparate threads all come together. Really liking the series though. 

Have you tried any of the Malazan books by that other guy, wondering if they are worth investigating after Ive finished the book of the fallen.

Nitefly

For Christmas, my daughter got me "The Atlas of Remote Islands" by a German woman named Judith Schalansky.  

It's a series of 50 one-page thumbnail sketches about various islands, with a map of each - some I'd heard of, many I hadn't - but all with some weird history.

St Kilda, for example, where almost all new-born babies died within 7 to 9 days of birth.

It's an interesting read...

Grunfeld

maidenfan said:

Clare's account of Laing is interesting, I think it portrays quite a human side to Laing's somewhat painfull end to his life. Laing was one of the reasons I started thinking and working psychodynamically, I also recommend Mary Barnes and Joe Berke's book - Two Accounts of a [Journey] through madness.

Thanks for the heads up on that book -- I've just ordered a copy. 

Interesting stuff, and I'd love to have trained like that.  I've had to go for a CBT approach and even that is very much an adjunct.  I just needed something I could use which was considered tolerable in the area I work in, for certain people who presented with physical pain but clearly have more than "simple" physical problems.

maidenfan

Grunfeld said:

maidenfan said:

Clare's account of Laing is interesting, I think it portrays quite a human side to Laing's somewhat painfull end to his life. Laing was one of the reasons I started thinking and working psychodynamically, I also recommend Mary Barnes and Joe Berke's book - Two Accounts of a [Journey] through madness.

Thanks for the heads up on that book -- I've just ordered a copy. 

Interesting stuff, and I'd love to have trained like that.  I've had to go for a CBT approach and even that is very much an adjunct.  I just needed something I could use which was considered tolerable in the area I work in, for certain people who presented with physical pain but clearly have more than "simple" physical problems.

I do think that cbt has its place, particularly in conjunction with other treatments. I struggle with the pressure to refer to services offering cbt when I have a fair degree of certainty that the patient will not be able to work with that model. Unfortunately it is very hard to refer to psychodynamic services at least in our trust. Given your interest, what is preventing you from re-training or adding another string to your bow?

Grunfeld

maidenfan said:I do think that cbt has its place, particularly in conjunction with other treatments. I struggle with the pressure to refer to services offering cbt when I have a fair degree of certainty that the patient will not be able to work with that model. Unfortunately it is very hard to refer to psychodynamic services at least in our trust. Given your interest, what is preventing you from re-training or adding another string to your bow?

That is such a good question.  Long story short: I work (part-time) in the NHS in physiotherapy and I know and you know that psychological problems can be the root of physical pain (and these are my NHS referrals).  But in the current paradigm -- which is heavily "evidence based" there is absolutely no chance of addressing these issues in a psychodynamic way -- it sounds hard enough for you, and I'm assuming you're working with mental health (well, who isn't!), but can you imagine what it would be like trying to do it in physical medicine?  The only option I had to work outside a purely physical model was to introduce CBT as an adjunct -- because the CBT guys have worked their socks off to get their approach accepted by meeting the necessary criterion of evidence.  (Therefore I've been able to justify "talking" to patients as well as pulling them about... so long as I can produce plans, timed goals, etc -- which CBT is good at.) 

So that's why I opted for CBT:  it's flavour of the month, I could get it past the people who employ me and would require me to justify "unconventional" treatments.  And to be fair, I'm traditionally orthopaedic in my approach to most things... but some people have problems that no amount of physical medicine will fix.  And they stand out a mile.   

So, CBT, pragmatic choice.  The best?  Sometimes; other times, not so.

Sarge

Serena by Ron Rash

crunchman

Re-reading War and Peace.  I first read it more than 20 years ago.  Not sure whether to watch the TV version though.

maidenfan

Grunfeld said:

maidenfan said:I do think that cbt has its place, particularly in conjunction with other treatments. I struggle with the pressure to refer to services offering cbt when I have a fair degree of certainty that the patient will not be able to work with that model. Unfortunately it is very hard to refer to psychodynamic services at least in our trust. Given your interest, what is preventing you from re-training or adding another string to your bow?

That is such a good question.  Long story short: I work (part-time) in the NHS in physiotherapy and I know and you know that psychological problems can be the root of physical pain (and these are my NHS referrals).  But in the current paradigm -- which is heavily "evidence based" there is absolutely no chance of addressing these issues in a psychodynamic way -- it sounds hard enough for you, and I'm assuming you're working with mental health (well, who isn't!), but can you imagine what it would be like trying to do it in physical medicine?  The only option I had to work outside a purely physical model was to introduce CBT as an adjunct -- because the CBT guys have worked their socks off to get their approach accepted by meeting the necessary criterion of evidence.  (Therefore I've been able to justify "talking" to patients as well as pulling them about... so long as I can produce plans, timed goals, etc -- which CBT is good at.) 

So that's why I opted for CBT:  it's flavour of the month, I could get it past the people who employ me and would require me to justify "unconventional" treatments.  And to be fair, I'm traditionally orthopaedic in my approach to most things... but some people have problems that no amount of physical medicine will fix.  And they stand out a mile.  And when you "change hats" and talk to them, ask them a question they were not expecting from a physio, and listen... vooom.. it all opens up. 

So, CBT, pragmatic choice.  The best?  Sometimes; other times, not so.

Interesting, I like your thought process, particularly in removing the focus from 'hands on', are you able to make some nods towards 'transference'? We have a large liaison psychiatry team with a specialist in medically unexplained symptoms. Fortunately There is a strong dynamic influence in the team. I'm generic cmht for the moment. Apologies if formatting is weird, on an ipad