Book of David
A Manifesto for the Revolution in Mental Healthcare
By Michael Benjamin, M.D.
Foreword by Sir Graeme Catto
What Is Psychoanalysis?
(As told by Leslie ‘Foxy’ Karpel)
Imagine you have a large, expensive, but misbehaving, Swiss watch. The attendant watchmaker sits in his shaded room, only a bell-shaped lamp illuminates his workbench. On it is a black clean cloth and his tools pedantically arrayed. Through his owlish eyes magnified by his sparkling glasses, he studies the watch. He quickly and methodically begins to take your heirloom apart. Meticulously paraded in front of him is each screw and cogwheel. He picks them up gently one by one, examines them and then uses a small pump and tiny dropper to oil and dry each piece. Studiously, he places each piece back. He opens the watch and yes, the resuscitated Lazarus-like second hand is beating. With a smile, he opens his watch and compares. Yes, they are in complete synchronism.
His mouth only expresses a smile of satisfaction verging on smugness. Then his face turns to horror. On the desk is one errant and defiant small cog. “What the hell is that?” he croaks. And you reply, “dunno, maybe it came from yours.”
From the Back Cover
A Manifesto for the Revolution in Mental Healthcare
Throughout modern history, previous generations of psychiatrists have perpetrated a very sordid series of misdeeds which we cannot explain away. Our helping hand to the Nazis and Soviets cannot and should never be forgotten or brushed aside. I fear we have provided the next generation with another batch of reasons to question themselves with.
Automatic Everything
Half of the time, we humans are not aware of what we are doing. I’m going to surprise you even further. When we believe we know what we are doing, we are not actually fully aware of what we are doing. Now, that is one hell of a complicated sentence
This book is about dreams, daydreams and beliefs. Why are they so important? They are the representation of the past, the future and the present. When the regulation of any one or all of them goes wrong, all hell breaks loose.
About the Author
Serving in the Israeli Defense Forces for some time, Dr. Michael Benjamin attained the rank of Major and saw active duty in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the First Lebanon War and headed up treatment for soldiers affected by PTSD.
BOOK DETAILS
- Categories: Psychiatrist Memoir, Mental Healthcare
- Length: 209 pages (74,319 words)
- Available in eBook and paperback
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Reviews
I knew Benjamin as a therapist since I served as chief Psychiatrist the IDF (Israel Defense Force) mental health department. I knew Benjamin as the director of the Community Mental Health Center and a health fund representative in reform simulation. Then I served as Head of Mental Health Services. For the past 15 years, I have known and learned from Benjamin as a fellow member of the quasi-judicial district psychiatric danger assessment committee.
I read "David's Book", the wonderful mentoring story of Benjamin to the late David, the embryonic psychiatrist killed in an accident. He was to learn from Benjamin instead it was me who learned from my senior and experienced colleagues- Benjamin.
I read Benjamin's mentoring book for David for two weeks, chapter by chapter. Daily, I learned. I felt I was coming back and learning from an older, smart, patient man who was experienced in teaching and training to an intern who was at the beginning of the road. I hope readers like me will re-live their relationship with their spiritual teacher and revisit the insights they received.
I'm sure you, too, the readers will enjoy meeting Benjamin. He has ‘a way of being’, consulting, and asking questions we did not dare to ask. He asks about the relationship between mind and behavior. What are their emotions and what their role is in understanding reality and making decisions for action, whether in the patient or in the healthy? Benjamin allows his reader to draw from his experience and wisdom for organizing life as David would have had.
The teacher-student relationship, which did not develop, was transformed by Benjamin into the revealing of a seasoned talent for human love into "Life Course" lessons. In addition to psychiatric training, we specialize in how to live.
Thanks to Benjamin for his immortal gift in David's memory, a contribution to every reader.
~ Professor Motti Mark
Benjamin M. Book of David: A Manifesto for the Revolution in Mental Healthcare. U.K.: Wise Media Group, 2019.
I read this book carefully. It is written as one might think, aloud – hence the uncertain junctions twixt sentences! Its fast pace is reminiscent of a Robert Ludlum novel. Wear your seat-belt! If one reads it quickly and continuously one is rushed off into intriguing asides and hilarious anecdotes. Dr Benjamin hails from Leeds in Yorkshire and his heart is in Elland Road, the grounds of Leeds United. For many years he has practiced military psychiatry in Israel and he recounts some harrowing stories from the multiple conflicts endured by the people of that area. As someone living on the divided Ireland of Ireland, I can appreciate to some extent where Dr Benjamin is coming from. Like me, he is not fond of man’s destructiveness.
The book is written to a man called David (not the biblical David as I assumed at first) who was to join the author in the practice of psychiatry. Unfortunately, David was killed in an accident and never arrived. The author attempts to instruct David in the positive and negative aspects of his profession.
Dr Benjamin feels passionately about certain aspects of psychiatry. I will mention just a few of these. He does not have anything positive to say about the drug treatment of ADHD. Whilst I would not be quite as negative as the author, he has a point. There was a clear-cut condition called hyperkinetic disorder which became blown up into ADHD with fuzzy boundaries. I recall seeing numerous parents protesting about this outside a psychiatric convention in San Francisco and feel sympathy for them. In the convention centre, the pharmaceutical industry stands were dominated by medicines for ADHD.
The author rails against the pharmaceutical industry and there are many colleagues who have sung the same song. Big Pharma invests big money and have a limited time to recoup. I also recall Banting and Best of Toronto refusing to patent their discovery, insulin. This kept the price down. However, we need the pharmaceutical industry unless we are going to grow herbs in our gardens like our forefathers. We are caught between the need for new remedies (in the whole of medicine) and the hype. I particularly do not like direct-to-patient advertising. New is certainly not a synonym for good.
I agree largely with his view on legal interaction with the medical profession. Medical insurance is indeed astronomical. I was somewhat relieved when two different lawyers spontaneously admitted to me that ‘we caused this’: disproportionate litigation and potential damage to doctor-patient relations. I am reminded of the title of an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry: ‘Rotting with your right on’. Dr Benjamin is correct about cannabis. I was saddened recently by the amount of untreated mental illness in Vancouver, and Canada has legalised cannabis!
Dr Benjamin goes to some length to point out that what he is telling David is as yet a theory. Without going into detail, the central narrative includes shades of cognitive theory, Eric Berne (what do we mean when we say hello and who is talking to who), and Freud (from anaclitic depression to the triumph of ego over ID). Although not stated as such, there is much said about the over-strict superego. Whether it ultimately bears fruit only time will tell, but the author seems to have the energy to give it his best. Michael Benjamin’s book gave me hours of pleasure, mild confusion, and plenty to think about.
Dr. Brian O’Shea, former Clinical Director, Newcastle Hospital, Newtownmountkennedy, Co. Wicklow, Republic of Ireland; editor, A Textbook of Psychological Medicine (5 editions); consultant psychiatrist, Mental Health Tribunals.
I am the Emeritus Professor Of Law at the University Of Haifa Law School. As a lawyer and expert on criminal law, mental functioning is of extreme importance. The subject bears on and defines legal responsibility.
Reading The Book Of David is an excellent voyage into the realms of our emotional world. For a layperson, the book provides a unique tool and keys to enhance our understanding of the many mechanisms and processes making up of mental health and illnesses. Albeit the book is simply written, making it easy to read; it has a sense of wisdom, enabling everyone wishing to further their desire to understand what is psychiatry.
The book’s uniqueness lays in its ability to allow the reader to grasp the nucleus of how we think, feel, and behave. As a corollary, the book permits a novel insight into illnesses and their therapy. The Book Of David gave me a profound understanding of how treatment works. This book opens a full window viewing the mechanism of our soul while elaborating on mental illness and its treatment. The book is a must for every person who wishes to understand how our emotional and mental world works.
~ Professor Emanuel Gross
Written for the layman or the professional, this is a must read for anyone interested in the world of psychiatry.
Based on his decades of experience in hospital and community psychiatry, Dr Benjamin gives a fascinating, in-depth and very wide ranging view of the world of mental health and ill health.
However, there many books out there that do this. Where Book of David differs is that it is a very personal account written from a most unusual perspective. Dr Benjamin’s writing style is amusing and his views are frequently challenging and controversial. He pulls no punches, certainly where the pharmaceutical profession is concerned. What you get all in one book is a comprehensive view of how our minds develop and how they might go wrong, his views on treatment approaches, the organization of psychiatric services and the role of the legal profession with regard to patient’s rights.
As a general practitioner for over twenty-seven years and a doctor in aerospace medicine for seventeen years, I can fully relate to the the story Dr Benjamin has to tell and its relevance.
~ Jose
This book volume is designed to bring the experience and knowledge acquired by the author over his decades as a psychiatric practitioner to the interested lay reader, students and fellow professionals. It is well written in a very readable style, with theory intermingled with specific cases and incidents drawn from the author’s experience. The subject matter of the book is ordered logically, covering the subjects of how people manage thoughts feelings, emotions and behaviour, what is happening when mental illness occurs, how mental illness is best treated and how mental healthcare provision is provided by health services and the pharmaceutical industry.
The book is written as if the reader is young new practitioner. Indeed, the name of the book ‘Book of David’ is inspired by the name of a young man who was to be mentored by the author, but who sadly died in an accident just before the mentoring started.
The author has this powerful motivation to honour the memory of David to create an erudite and informative text. It also provides him with the vehicle to present his novel and sometimes controversial ideas on many aspects of psychiatry.
I believe that this book is particularly compelling for students embarking on a career in mental healthcare, but would recommend it to anyone that wishes to broaden their knowledge and understanding of human behaviour.
~ Laurence Benjamin
I know Michael for most of my professional life. I have seen first hand his ability to think out of the box. Benjamin has pronounced ideas about every topic in mental health; in particular, the role of the Internet.
He discussed with me his ideas on the importance of imagination and fantasy in the development of illness and its possible treatment. We, in my workplace, experienced, first hand his ability to set up and monitor mental health services when he worked with the ministry of defence rehabilitation unit.
Lately, I witnessed his ability to diagnose the patient, assess the danger and evaluate intervention. I was surprised that he agreed to write the book until I realised the underlying, tragic motive. He was writing in memorial of a young psychiatrist who died. Michael mentors him in the BOOK OF DAVID.
I was not surprised that Benjamin can write both well and interestingly. He has authored three novels. I expected the humour- those who know him, would expect nothing else.
The BOOK OF DAVID looks at our emotional development in a new light. Benjamin the delves fully into pathology and he extrapolates to the realms of treatment. Here we see his suggested role of the Internet in the future.
The book discusses and criticises services and mental health’s many troubled interphases with big pharma and the legal profession. Again Benjamin does not shy away from suggesting daring if not highly provocative solutions.
The BOOK OF DAVID is both arousing and thought evoking.
The BOOK OF DAVID is readable, entertaining, and I suggest it to anyone in the profession or interested in mental health.
~ Mark Weisser, Professor of Psychiatry
I am a lawyer representing potentially dangerous patients who are brought before quasi-legal psychiatric committees who decide my clients’ fate. I have always been interested in the world of psychiatry and sought sources of information to enrich my knowledge. In these circumstances, I met Dr Benjamin. I was impressed by a unique, humorous, and professional individual. I was surprised by his ability to accurately diagnose the patient who had only just come into the room. Nevertheless, Benjamin always concerned himself with the patient's inner world and how the patient experienced his world. Most professionals seek psychopathology. Benjamin does not cease to see the person hiding behind one or another disease. He seems to wonder whether to burden the patient with medications or if the patient's inner world is benign and allow the patient’s choice even though it does not adhere to the social norm.
In this respect, Benjamin’s concepts, as expressed in his book did not surprise me. The daring and individual personality is well-reflected in the book. More importantly, the book is accessible to laymen like me; it explains clearly and consistently complex processes of the human soul. The book is recommended for anyone interested in searching for answers, anyone who examines the existing system with a critical eye. The book talks to those who wonder about the increase in drug therapy in the population; those who question the significant reduction in the personal touch and those who seek a profound understanding of the needs of the suffering soul.
~ Yana Kessler
The BOOK OF DAVID is a very interesting book showing another view on mental health care, through the eyes of Dr. Michael Benjamin. Do mental sick people really need to be taking care off with only traditional medicine? Or is this the easy solution that most psychiatrists are going to? Dr. Benjamin a psychiatrist with years of experience, shows via this book another way of treatment, a more humane one.
The book is not only for medical students or family members that have mental illness in their family, though for anyone who wants to learn a little more and enjoy a good book and some good black humor. An easy to read book, which I have enjoyed very much. Hope to see more of Dr. Michael Benjamin’ books.
~ Dana Kellerhuis