Fires in the Dark

<b>The acclaimed author of <i>An Unquiet Mind </i>considers the age-old quest for relief from psychological pain and the role of the exceptional healer in the journey back to health.</b><br><br>&#147;To treat even to cure is not always to heal.&#148; In this expansive cultural history of the treatment and healing of mental suffering Kay Jamison writes about psychotherapy what makes a great healer and the role of imagination and memory in regenerating the mind. From the trauma of the battlefields of the twentieth century to those who are grieving depressed or with otherwise unquiet minds to her own experience with bipolar illness Jamison demonstrates how remarkable psychotherapy and other treatments can be when done well.<br><br>She argues that not only patients but doctors must be healed. She draws on the example of W.H.R. Rivers the renowned psychiatrist who treated poet Siegfried Sassoon and other World War I soldiers and discusses the long history of physical treatments for mental illness as well as the ancient and modern importance of religion ritual and myth in healing the mind. She looks at the vital role of artists and writers as well as exemplary figures such as Paul Robeson who have helped to heal us as a people.<br><br><i>Fires in the Dark</i> is a beautiful meditation on the quest and adventure of healing the mind on the power of accompaniment and the necessity for knowledge.