Fth-Rickie

I picked up this book used thinking it looked a little interesting---it was far more than that. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. It tells of Rickie, who at the age of 13 for reasons unknown has a mental breakdown. She is put in the hospital, and although she never receives a definitive diagnosis, she unbelievely is kept in various mental hospital for the next 10 years. Her father loves her deeply, but although he is a psychiatrist himself, he trusts those who are caring for her when they say she needs to stay there, needs to rarely see her family, needs to undergo shock treatment, needs to be medicated, etc. After a while, she learns to cope by basically copying other patients and by hurting herself physically to get attention and love. It's only when her father finally realizes there are other treatments out there that the conventional doctors aren't using that he takes charge of her care, and she rapidly improves, to the point that she marries and has a child and lives a close to normal life. Her father is the author, and he writes so honestly. He shows how Rickie's illness affects the whole family, he struggles to figure out what might have triggered it, and he agonizes over her. In today's world we often hear about how terrible it is that mental illness patients are hospitilized for such short periods. After reading this book, I saw for the first time the up side of that---how in the past, a mental hospital became a home for many people---some needed to be there, some didn't, but for most, it wasn't the ideal home. I also liked how although some alternative therapies helped Rickie, the author is a scientist and doesn't draw conclusions based on this, and doesn't try to advocate for any one therapy. I highly recommend this book.

I got this book from MBBA (MN bio brain association) library, and the day I got it, I started reading it and did not stop until I finished it. Cover to cover in two days. It was absolutely amazing. I've dealt with hospitalizations and abuses of power in those hospitalizations, and while my mother is convinced my problems are not mental diseases, I think I do differ from Rickie. However, it was so nice to read that I was not alone. That hospitals are not perfect. That I can do it, no matter what people say. That was the powerful message of the book.

This book was an excellent insight to how developmental problems may exist or be overlooked even by the specialists! It is very easy to relate to when you work with children struggling to survive.

As a psychiatrist I was especially moved by the honesty with which Dr. Flach and his daughter Rickie wrote of their struggle against her psychiatric symptoms. He did not hide any of the worst aspects of psychiatry in his recounting of his daughter's treatment, yet it was with such an understanding of the limitations of his profession that there is no sense of anger or blame placed on his colleagues. He was equally open and revealing about his own inner struggles, frailties and ultimate resilience. I also think that Rickie and Dr. Flach's decision to pursue alternative (I prefer the term complementary) treatments and their dramatic success is a crucial lesson for all of us practicing medicine today. I highly recommend this book, but that leads me to the only negative comment on this title: it is no longer available. I hope the publisher decides to republish this text. It is so very timely at this time, even more so than when it was written in 1991. Thank you Dr. Flach and Rickie for an inspiring book.