Review: The Dark Side of the Mind, by Kerry Daynes

My Review

Thanks to Anne of Random Things Tours and to the author for sending me a copy of this book.

Single sentence review:

Utterly fascinating and incredibly easy to read.

Proper review:

I am fascinated by the way human minds work; I put this down to not having the instruction manual most people are born with, so I study humans instead (in a non-professional capacity). I think that’s why I like books and writing so much – it’s amazing how much an autistic kid can learn about humans and their motivations by reading fiction (and we’re not supposed to like fiction). So, when the opportunity came up to read and review this book, I jumped at it with both hands, grasping like an excited child. Yes, I know that metaphor doesn’t quite work.

Gotta say, despite my fascination with true crime (human minds – extremis) I didn’t recognise her face or name, but my memory isn’t great on those things so I might have seen her on telly and not known about it.

Daynes talks about her work and personal life in the book, which covers fifteen years, from her first job as a trainee psychologist to her decision to get more involved in domestic violence work. I found her personal story of domestic abuse, struggles with ‘taking work home’ and a stalker as fascinating as her professional story; her clients are a mixed bag of people who all needed help. They were all damaged by life and needed someone to listen and help them through the pain, and Kerry Daynes does that, as much as she can.

Her epilogue really chimed with me. I have said for a long time that the ‘lock ’em up and throw away the key’ attitude to crime and criminals isn’t helpful and doesn’t change anything, we need to look at why the person got to the point where they made the decision to commit a criminal act. What happened to them, what environment did they grow up in, what could have been done differently, what is the social and cultural story that resulted in this mess? Daynes asks the same thing – what happened to them?

Until we answer that, until we change the social stew that causes childhood abuse to be reproduced over generations, that isolates people, that disenfranchises people so they feel no hope of things ever changing, there will be more people in prison, more people in mental distress.

Not just a personal memoir, this book looks at the state of mental health care and the prison system in the UK, providing information and statistics on mental distress in prisoners (if you don’t have a mental health condition when you go in, you do when you get out – and I’m pretty certain if my cousin had been inside any longer than he was he’d have developed OCD), the underfunding of proper medical care (which backs up the information provided in The Prison Doctor, by Dr. Amanda Brown from a different perspective), and the desperate need for people in prisons to be assessed by competent clinical psychologists and listened to. I was particularly affected by the man with a brain tumour that hadn’t been operated on until Daynes spent two months digging and flagged up his medical history. He died not long after.

Daynes’ work in mental health settings, including private hospitals, is as interesting as her prison and secure unit work. In the private hospitals, the patients hadn’t committed any crimes but if they were ‘difficult’ they were treat as though they had. Her work with the woman misdiagnosed with BPD, when she probably had DID was a classic example. Everything that happened was put down to her BPD, rather than the obvious distress and dissociation that Daynes saw. The patient to one nurse was not ‘poorly’ but ‘naughty’, like she was badly behaved child. People in mental distress are not children (well, some are and some people have child-alters, but still), the attitude that they are treat as children makes me angry, because people who are in positions of care should know better. Deciding ‘I’m not dealing with the difficult cases’ isn’t an option, people need help, not being shuttled from one place to another because people can’t be bothered.

I’m angry because it could have been me, or any of the people I know with mental health problems, on and offline. I’m angry because the same attitude is why autistic people and people with learning disabilities are locked up for the crime of existing. Do better.

I found this book utterly fascinating and devoured it in great chunks, choosing to read it ahead of books marked for review earlier in the month. I’ve also bought another book, Bad Psychology by Robert A. Forde based on Daynes’ comments in this book.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kerry Daynes is a Consultant and Forensic Psychologist, speaker and media commentator. For over twenty years her average week has involved working with everything from stressed-out parents to serial killers and she is a sought-after court-appointed expert witness. Kerry regularly appears on international television networks and in the media; she was ‘The Profiler’ over three series of Discovery’s top-rated ‘Faking It’ documentaries. Kerry is Patron of the National Centre for Domestic Violence and Talking2Minds. She is an advocate for better conversations about mental distress and alternatives to the culture of psychological ‘disorder’. Kerry lives in Cheshire with two huge dogs and yes, she is a proud natural ginger.

http://www.kerrydaynes.online/

Twitter @KerryDaynes

Author Page on Facebook