New Book

The President of CNSI published an investigative psychoautobiography that details his life as it was impacted by Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and harsh physical child abuse. It explores the evolution from there to posttraumatic stress disorder and then to Bipolar, Borderline Personality, conduct and anxiety disorders. Written for the general reader, it will be of value to survivors and their companions to help them understand the complex progression of psychiatric diseases and potential therapeutics; although the latter are still not permanent solutions.

This book records the extreme and nigh-on lunatic behaviour of parents towards a child with consequent psychic damage. It was driven by fundamental religious beliefs. The account by the victim represents an extraordinary exercise in the inward turning of consciousness in the Hughlings Jackson tradition and centres on the delineation of important and novel aspects of the functions of the insula and the cingulate gyrus. It is full of ideas. Some are obviously speculative and others based on experience. It deserves a wide audience - particularly in the psychiatric discipline.

Derek Denton AC FRS FRCP
Florey Neuroscience Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia
Member, National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A.