Review for Imp of the Mind, by Dr. Lee Baer

Unlike most of the other material I have read and reviewed on this site, this book is a clinical medical textbook. It is a very comprehensive self-help guide to keeping oneself from being harmed by one's bad thoughts. The doctor defines almost everything, from what a bad thought is, to the varied range of treatments that a person bothered by excessive bad thoughts of any nature can seek out.

Originally, I came upon the title of this book because a family member afflicted with a mental illness had recommended it to me. While I was reluctant to acknowledge that I myself may have any mental illness, the laws of inheritance and genetics reminded me that it is better to be cautious than to shrug off a potential helper for a problem that I may not be aware of. And so, with a grain of salt, I began reading this book. For these reasons, the text was at times difficult for me to mentally digest.

The voice is clear cut and simple: the voice of a doctor - explanatory and technical, with a very sympathetic tone. The passages of narration only come by when the doctor must give an example of a patient's experiences, to illustrate his point about a particular method of thinking and treatment. He respects their privacy by changing names in the book. Because the voice is also talky, it feels less technical than a thick school textbook may be, and it's not impeded by the lack of any pictures. The charts and lists in the book also greatly help illustrate the point. The only complaint I may have about this text that it understates the discipline and effort necessary to change one's mind - even if he does say that when one cannot do it on his own, he should seek help from a mental health professional.

Going off topic for a paragraph, I think that most books involving getting help for therapy or any other form of extended treatment should also come with a guidebook with instructions on how to obtain reliable health insurance, with different books for different countries. I know far too many people who can start helping themselves if only someone can point them in the right direction; however, it takes a trained professional to confidently do that, and these people must go through the bureaucrats and office work before they can pay a professional for some tips.

I also would have wanted the doctor to go further into the reasons for which such stigma is attached to having bad thoughts. Granted a whole other textbook involving sociology may be necessary to accomplish this, but in my opinion, this was an area worth exploring. I'm making a mental note here to perhaps do a little more research into this area: the social causes of mental instability. In just the scope of the simple self help guide, though, where the doctor probably narrowed his focus so as not to distract those who are trying to help themselves, the book is very thorough. I wouldn't mind seeing this book used as a text for abnormal psychology.

Something that "The Imp" does very well is to illustrate the point that most people aren't as normal as they think they are, and that others around them are also not as normal as they pretend to be. The range from complete normalcy, if such a thing exists, to complete insanity, if such a thing exists, is very large, indeed. I feel that if this point were socialized well enough, then many of the prejudices against the mentally ill may subside at least a little.

The other topic I would have liked the book to discuss more of is the overlap between angry obsessive thoughts and anger management. I can understand why the doctor strayed away from this path, though: many to most OCD patients do not have angry obsessive thoughts. This is also an opening to further research into a given area. If this book were to be used in an abnormal psychology class, then perhaps it should be used near the beginning of the semester, near the end of a unit on OCD, in connection to other subjects that the professor may want to discuss.

As an academic textbook, I feel that this book would be very helpful. As a self help book, it may be better if the person has outside help instead of tackling her bad thoughts alone, because this one book may not be enough. The other option is for her to do further research using many other books. However, I stress that changing one's own mind takes an inordinate amount of discipline and effort. As such, the book most likely accomplishes its purpose most of the time.