Review: I Don’t Talk To Dead Bodies, by Dr Rhona Morrison

Synopsis
Prepare to be intrigued, amazed and astonished as you join Dr Rhona Morrison on an often funny, and at times downright bizarre, thought-provoking and eye-opening rollercoaster ride through some of the most curious encounters of her career as a leading forensic psychiatrist.

Delve into the minds of real people, whose actions may shock and stun you, but whose stories have the power to challenge your assumptions and the stigma that surrounds mental illness.

Travel directly into their living rooms and see behind the closed doors of
hospitals, prisons and court rooms. Lift the lid on Dr Morrison’s jaw-dropping experiences with murderers, stalkers and other dangerous offenders as she attempts to make sense of some highly unusual situations.

Discover the true stories of the inspiring human beings who are bravely learning to live with major mental illness. I Don’t Talk to Dead Bodies shines a powerful, emotional and surprisingly moving spotlight on the fascinating life of a forensic psychiatrist and the people she works with. It goes beyond the sensationalist headlines to show you just what happens in a world where mental illness occasionally makes good people do bad things.

My Review

Thanks to the author for my copy of this book and to Anne for organising the blog tour.

A psychiatrist with empathy who understands the need for integrated care and multi-agency cooperation, Dr Morrison spent 32 years in the NHS, and left it a better place.

This memoir is entertaining and moving by turns. I learnt a lot about the way the NHS forensic psychiatry system worked, at least in Scotland. I work on the periphery of the NHS psychiatry/mental health circle, there is overlap between our services at Faraway and the Adult Autism Service and adult mental health care. I don’t really have much understanding of the structure they all work in.

I agree with Dr Morrison on a lot of points – the importance of treating people as individuals, of looking beyond the offence or potential offence to the person beneath. I found her experience of caring for women in prison chimed with the experiences of other doctors who work in prisons. Their testimony clearly makes the argument for better mental health services, looking closer at ‘frequent flyers’ who might have mental health conditions causing them to offend, and getting to the root of a problem. It might have been more challenging if I was a ‘lock ’em up and throw away the key’ type.

I read this book fairly quickly and cried my eyes out. Dr Morrison is a talented writer as well as an artist and psychiatrist.

Highly recommended.

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About the author

Dr Rhona Morrison is a retired
Forensic Psychiatrist, who worked
in the NHS for 32 years. Born and
bred in Scotland, into a workingclass family, she has a grounded
approach to life, with a generous
helping of humour. She learned the
importance of being non-judgemental and supportive
through her relationship with her
sensory impaired sister, who had
learning and physical disabilities.
This prepared her well for working with mentally disordered offenders in custody and in the community, where she often felt humbled by their resilience and privileged to be part of their journey. As a passionate advocate of the de-stigmatisation of mental illness, she hopes her writing can shine a light on this specialist area of practice, so often impacted by negative attitudes and damaging
assumptions.

Available to buy from all good bookstores including: Amazon, Bookshop.org.
Waterstones and Foyle