Reviews of Trauma and Spider

Abstract

Reviews the books, Trauma by Patrick McGrath (2009) & Spider by Patrick McGrath (2002). Spider is narrated by an individual with schizophrenia, released into the community following the reduction in asylum beds, who experiences scant 'care' in the community and retreats back into the psychosis that saw him admitted to hospital originally. Taking the literary trope of the unreliable narrator to the extreme, this novel teaches us much about the fallibility of memory, the alteration of perspectives and memory with psychosis, and crucially the experience of a terrifying psychosis. Trauma is narrated by a psychiatrist, who slowly deteriorates psychologically following the death of his mother. The complexity of his personal relationships-with his brother, his ex-wife (with whom he beings having sex with again after his mother's funeral) and his daughter-are made further difficult by his burgeoning relationship with the strange, chaotic and damaged Nora, who he feels needs psychiatric treatment that he cannot provide. This is a multilayered tale-he attempted to treat his ex-wife's brother Danny for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD following the Vietnam War, ending his relationship with his wife after finding Danny dead through suicide. This unresolved trauma begins to encroach upon his post-Mother's-death existence as he begins to re-examine his fractured memories of childhood. The text contains much on the clinical syndrome PTSD, but also on the trauma of life and loss en masse, the psychological effects of which can be far reaching in individuals who fail, because of semi-abusive childhoods, to develop necessary mental resources to cope. McGrath combines believable and understandable characters with mental health problems, empathy towards experiences and clinically recognizable syndromes and symptoms. His novels are not only enjoyable, but striking, emotive and serve as examples of material useful for medical education. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)