Recommended reading

What we have been reading and listening to this month:

Depressive Illness; The Curse of the Strong – Dr Tim Cantopher

With Depression being one of the most common presenting issues amongst my client group I am always on the lookout for resources which might help people. As a major feature with depression is inability to focus or concentrate for long, it is helpful if the books are short.

Dr Tim Cantopher’s book is just over 100 pages. Most importantly it is not a text book, it is written in an intelligent and easy to read style which engages the reader. Dr. Cantopher believes that beating the illness is an understanding why you got it in the first place. To this end, the book looks at various causes of depression and highlights that they “all share the same endpoint which is if you overload your limbic fuse badly enough or for long enough it will blow” (page 13).

He uses the analogy of sticking a 15 amp plug into a 13 amp socket. He discusses the various therapeutic approaches and backs up his writing with research and he includes chapters on what to do when you get ill, recovery and staying well. The Depression Alliance says “This book should be read by everybody but especially by those who are afflicted by depression, whether a carer or a professional. It offers invaluable insight into depression and promotes a level of self awareness which if heeded could keep many of us a lot healthier”

This is definitely a book to have in your therapy library.

Mindsight – The new power of Personal Transformation by Dan Siegal

Daniel J Siegal has written a couple of really interesting books which give us the reader an opportunity to catch up on a lot of the latest research in mental health that has been taking place over the last few years. The work in both books brings together a wide range of traditionally independent fields of research such as neurobiology, genetics, memory, attachment, complex systems, anthropology and evolutionary psychology and combines them with Eastern meditation practices. These texts offer a review and synthesis of scientific findings which is hard to find without a massive amount of reading

Also worth reading is The Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology – Pocket guide to Interpersonal neurobiology. – Dan Siegal