Overview

'Surviving Schizophrenia' chronicles a path where biochemical intervention is not the sole factor relevant to mental illness. Varied 'world views' - Christianity, Maori Pacifika lore, or the credo of a New Age - which have influenced myself - demand a broad approach to mental health. Reckless prescription of drugs should not substitute exclusively for alternative therapies. As schizophrenia appears in early adulthood, recognition of the vice of youth - alcohol, sex, drugs - should impel professionals to tackle the degenerate social effects of mental illness - alcohol abuse, drug abuse, itinerancy, prostitution. Suffering schizophrenia for thirty years, I sojourned from the depths of madness to the sobriety of recovery. Plagued with hallucinatory voices, hyperbolic mania, irrational phobia, and inexplicable ideas of magical influence, I entered psychiatric institutions on numerous occasions. I traversed the New Zealand public health system - hospitals, outpatient clinics, hospice services. I spent nine months in a forensic hospital. Despite these trials, I have never received a conviction for contravention of the law. Graduating with a Bachelor's Degree in Management Studies from the University of Waikato, I have since participated in the consumer advocacy movement of former 'clients' of mental health services. In particular, I was a supporter in the 1990s of the The Schizophrenia Fellowship NZ (now known as Supporting Families); The Aotearoa Network of Psychiatric Survivors; and Psychiatric Survivors Auckland Inc. New Zealand, with Great Britain, the USA and The Netherlands is a leader of mental health consumer advocacy.

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This novel is riveting from the first sentence. The heroine's odyssey through the psychiatric system is described with humour, colour and finesse. This compelling story-telling illuminates a world usually left in denial and fear by the larger community. Southon offers a way into that world that enlarges our insight, understanding and compassion as it also delights us with its deftness of touch. Like Janet Frame's Faces in the Water, this work can provoke dialogue and reform in New Zealand's mental health system, starting with ourselves. (Madeleine Heron MPhil (Hons), BSc, BA)

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