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Guy Dargert, The Snake in the Clinic: Psychotherapy’s Role in Medicine and Healing<\/em>. London: Karnac, 2016<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reviewed by Dr Jane Slater<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The best review of a book is unlikely to be written by an enthusiast, so I need to confess upfront that this book blew me away. The first time I read it, I entertained passersby with involuntary exclamations of \u201c Yes\u201d and \u201c That\u2019s SO true\u201d, and even on one sublime paragraph, \u201c Go Guy\u201d. Thus, my first task was to rein in my paeans of praise and attempt\u00a0to be objective.<\/p>\n In titling the book The Snake in the Clinic<\/em>, Dargert refers to the snake coiled around the staff of Aesclepius, the god of healing, a symbol used by the British Medical Association. The book reminds us that in the age of the serum rhubarb, scans for everything and a pill for every ill, we forget at our peril the crucial role of simply understanding what an illness is doing for us. The wisdom of the ancients deserves review and benefits our patients and ourselves, cutting through the fog of technology into which modern medicine risks becoming lost.<\/p>\n The Snake in the Clinic<\/em>\u00a0is an overview of the art of healing, bringing together strands of orthodox clinical medicine (p.45, illness being the opposite of health) with various psychotherapeutic philosophies, and interweaving them with ancient understanding of the purpose of illness (p.142, dancing with illness). Indeed, the whole premise of the book is to re-jig our concept of illness from something to be avoided and fought (p.40, the War on Cancer) to a gift: the illness itself can bring an opportunity to heal or make whole some broken area within us (p.46, Jung\u2019s thoughts). Dargert even takes us to the ultimate with\u00a0his question, \u201cCan there be a healthy death?\u201d (to which the \u00a0medic\u2019 asked responded, \u201cA young fit man in an RTA?\u201d). Along with all GPs, I have been privileged to have seen many a ‘healthy death’ over the course of my career \u2013 patients wholly at peace with themselves at the end.<\/p>\n Dargert\u00a0questions our very concept of illness and wellness, contrasting the WHO definition of health as an absence of disease with the idea of health as a state of equilibrium, a balance between so many factors in our lives that\u00a0are at odds with one another: the pressure to conform and to live up to expectations versus the wild spirit wishing a different path. He gives numerous examples from patient encounters to illustrate his points, which was valuable\u00a0in cementing my understanding of sometimes alien ideas.<\/p>\n Dargert draws on Taoist, Buddhist, tribal religions and the concept of the Daimon (so well realised by Phillip Pullman in his Northern Lights<\/em> trilogy as the connection between the physical body, mind and spirit) to exemplify his holistic approach. There are also explorations of dream material as a bridge to the unconscious,\u00a0 holding vital keys to those physical and psychological problems seeking solutions.<\/p>\n He is unafraid to quote his detractors, such as Susan Sontag\u2019s rant against the use of psychotherapy in the treatment of cancer, though hers seemed a misplaced criticism of what psychotherapy could achieve: it seeks not to get rid of the disease or symptom, but to understand what it may offer, and through this understanding find an acceptance and an ability to fully live despite the condition. Whilst encouraging the use of all available therapies and not abjuring the more physical medical approach, Dargert rather seeks to balance and complete the process of achieving wellness by simultaneously exploring the effects of the dis-ease on the soul or psyche. If ever I were to need the aid of an oncologist, I hope to find a Guy Dargert character in the wings helping me to interpret and make sense of what it all means to me and my life. We\u2019re around for so short a time, it behoves us all to be proactive in looking for meaning for ourselves and our patients before our little lights are snuffed \u00a0out.<\/p>\n To combine erudition with readability is a skill indeed, and Dargert displays both with humour and an infectious sense of questing which comes only from a therapist and pedagogue brimming with life.\u00a0It is well researched, engagingly composed, and absorbing. I would love this book to be a set text for GP registrars, and indeed would commend it both to those in the business of healing and those requiring of the same.<\/p>\n My only criticism is that I couldn\u2019t find it as an audio book \u2013 listening in the car between visits and clinics is one of the few \u201c breaks\u201d one has these days. But it is a good bedtime read also.<\/p>\n Who knows what you might dream…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Guy Dargert, The Snake in the Clinic: Psychotherapy’s Role in Medicine and Healing. London: Karnac, 2016 Reviewed by Dr Jane Slater The best review of a book is unlikely to be written by an enthusiast, so I need to confess upfront that this book blew me away. The first time I read […]<\/p>\n