THE DRUGS THAT CHANGED OUR MIN - SLATER LAUREN - Simon&Schuster uk

An astonishing debut, a novel of epic scope and suspense that conjures up all the magic and menace of Victorian London

London, 1892: James Norbury, a shy would-be poet newly down from Oxford, finds lodging with a charming young aristocrat. Through this new friendship, he is introduced to the drawing-rooms of high society, and finds love in an unexpected quarter. Then, suddenly, he vanishes without a trace. Unnerved, his sister, Charlotte, sets out from their crumbling country estate determined to find him. In the sinister, labyrinthine city that greets her, she uncovers a secret world at the margins populated by unforgettable characters: a female rope walker turned vigilante, a street urchin with a deadly secret, and the chilling “Doctor Knife.” But the answer to her brother’s disappearance ultimately lies within the doors of one of the country’s preeminent and mysterious institutions: The Aegolius Club, whose members include the most ambitious, and most dangerous, men in England.

In her first novel, Lauren Owen has created a fantastical world that is both beguiling and terrifying. The Quick will establish her as one of fiction’s most dazzling talents.

Advance praise for The Quick

“A suspenseful, gloriously atmospheric first novel, and a feast of gothic storytelling that is impossible to resist.”—Kate Atkinson, bestselling author of Life After Life and Case Histories

“A sly and glittering addition to the literature of the macabre . . . As soon as you have breathed with relief, much worse horrors begin. It’s a skilled, assured performance, and it’s hard to believe it is a first novel.”—Hilary Mantel, bestselling author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies

“Ambitious, elegant, atmospheric, and often deeply poignant, The Quick is a seamless blend of Victorian London and rich imagination. This is a book to savor.”—Tana French, bestselling author of In the Woods and Broken Harbor


From the Hardcover edition.

Acclaimed author Lauren Slater ruminates on what it means to be family.

Lauren Slater’s rocky childhood left her cold to the idea of ever creating a family of her own, but a husband, two dogs, two children, and three houses later, she came around to the challenges, trials, and unexpected rewards of playing house. Boldly honest, these biographical pieces reveal Slater at her wittiest and most deeply personal. She describes her journey from fiercely independent young woman to wife and mother, all while coping with mental illness. She tells of a chemical fire that rekindled the flame in her ailing relationship with her husband; she reflects on her decision to have an abortion, and then later to have children despite suffering from severe depression; she examines sex, love, mastectomies, and how nannies can be intrusive while dogs become family. Beautifully written, often humorous, and always revealing, these stories scrutinize the complex questions surrounding family life, offering up sometimes uncomfortable truths.

A stunning new book about the role of animals in our lives, by a popular and acclaimed writer

From the time she is nine years old, biking to the farmland outside her suburban home, where she discovers a disquieting world of sleeping cows and a “Private Way” full of the wondrous and creepy creatures of the wild—spiders, deer, moles, chipmunks, and foxes—Lauren Slater finds in animals a refuge from her troubled life. As she matures, her attraction to animals strengthens and grows more complex and compelling even as her family is falling to pieces around her. Slater spends a summer at horse camp, where she witnesses the alternating horrific and loving behavior of her instructor toward the animals in her charge and comes to question the bond that so often develops between females and their equines. Slater’s questions follow her to a foster family, her own parents no longer able to care for her. A pet raccoon, rescued from a hole in the wall, teaches her how to feel at home away from home. The two Shiba Inu puppies Slater adopts years later, against her husband’s will, grow increasingly important to her as she ages and her family begins to grow.

Slater’s husband is a born skeptic and possesses a sternly scientific view of animals as unconscious, primitive creatures, one who insists “that an animal’s worth is roughly equivalent to its edibility.” As one of her dogs, Lila, goes blind and the medical bills and monthly expenses begin to pour in, he calculates the financial burden of their canine family member and finds that Lila has cost them about $60,000, not to mention the approximately 400 pounds of feces she has deposited in their yard. But when Benjamin begins to suffer from chronic pain, Lauren is convinced it is Lila’s resilience and the dog’s quick adaptation to her blindness that draws her husband out of his own misery and motivates him to try to adjust to his situation. Ben never becomes a true believer or a die-hard animal lover, but his story and the stories Lauren tells of her own bond with animals convince her that our connections with the furry, the four-legged, the exoskeleton-ed, or the winged may be just as priceless as our human relationships.

The $60,000 Dog is Lauren Slater’s intimate manifesto on the unique, invaluable, and often essential contributions animals make to our lives. As a psychologist, a reporter, an amateur naturalist, and above all an enormously gifted writer, she draws us into the stories of her passion for animals that are so much more than pets. She describes her intense love for the animals in her life without apology and argues, finally, that the works of Darwin and other evolutionary biologists prove that, when it comes to worth, animals are equal, and in some senses even superior, to human beings.

Why is it considered irrational, even crazy, to love the animals in our lives as much as the humans? In The $60,000 Dog, Lauren Slater brilliantly and unforgettably interrogates this question by revealing how an emotionally intense bond with animals shaped the course of her development as an individual. With unmatched verbal acuity and bite, Slater revisits many of the most challenging, redemptive, and defining events in her life—from her childhood experience at a horseback-riding camp run by an abusive family to the marital difficulties that arose when she decided to neuter the family dog against her husband's wishes. In recounting a love of animals that has at times driven her to extremes—for example, attempting as a rebellious young vet tech to get plastic surgery for an injured swan—Slater makes sense of our human dependence on animals, refuting the guilt that we may feel for loving our pets “too much.”

An exploration of contemporary family dynamics, moral conundrums, and romantic love through one of our oldest literary formsthe fairy tale. "Inspired and barbed, Slater's fairy tales are irresistible."Donna Seaman, Booklist

Mermaids, seal women, little girls born of eggs, old men born of prematurely aged parents, and other strange creatures populate award-winning author Lauren Slater's stories of magic, psychology, pain, and release. Slater depicts the modern-day psycho-pharmaceutical industry and our ongoing obsession with chemically synthetic solutions, the staleness and surprises embedded in married erotic love, the conflicts in the mother-daughter bond, the universal struggle with dependency and addiction, and more. In addition, she explicitly and implicitly explores the value that fairy tales and fables still have in our culture as tools of healing and illumination.

"World-weary grown-ups will find Slater's tales delightfully wry" (Amanda Heller, Boston Sunday Globe) as she successfully combines her skills as a storyteller and her profound knowledge of psychology to create a bizarre world that is also hauntingly familiar. Daring and absurd, poignant and disturbing, these stories are beautifully written and will enchant and edify adult readers forever after.

A brilliant account of the twentieth century's key psychological experiments. Seen in their full context and told as stories, rich in plot, wit and character.

Beginning with B. F. Skinner and the legend of a child raised in a box, she takes us from a deep empathy with Stanley Milgram's obedience subjects to a funny and disturbing re-creation of an experiment questioning the validity of psychiatric diagnosis. Previously described only in academic journals and textbooks, these often daring experiments have never before been narrated as stories, full of plot, wit, personality, and theme.

As women, we know how important it is to take charge of our health care-to be informed and proactive. But too often we forget that our mental wellness is an integral part of our overall health. The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women is the definitive resource for women looking for answers to their mental health questions, whether those questions concern a disorder like depression or adjusting to major life changes like motherhood or divorce.

Drawing on the latest thinking in psychiatry and psychology, written for women of diverse backgrounds, The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women begins with Part One, the life cycle, helping women understand the major issues and biological changes associated with young adulthood, middle age, and old age. Specific entries address the psychological importance of women's sexuality, relationships, motherhood, childlessness, trauma, and illness and discuss how social contexts, such as poverty and racism, inevitably affect mental health.

Part Two explores specific mental disorders, including those, like postpartum depression, related to times when women are particularly vulnerable to mental illness. Part Three takes a closer look at biological treatments-including the use of antidepressants, and various types of psychotherapy-from cognitive behavioral treatments to EMDR and beyond. The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women ends with a section on life enhancements-because the activities that help us live fuller, more vital lives are also essential to our mental health.

The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women
* Draws on the knowledge and practical experience of more than fifty psychologists and psychiatrists
* Helps women think through the psychological challenges inherent in the life cycle, from young adulthood through old age
* Focuses on key life issues, from sexuality and relationships to trauma and racism
* Provides important information on mental disorders, their biological treatments, and psychotherapeutic interventions
* Includes a comprehensive list of psychotropic medications, targeted reading suggestions, crucial online resources, and support groups

The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women covers what every woman should know about:
* Aging. What should I expect from menopause? What do I need to know about the benefits and risks of hormone therapy?
* Pregnancy. How will becoming a mother change me? How do I overcome postpartum depression?
* Childlessness. What if I don't want to be a mother?
* Sexuality. Is a "female Viagra" the solution to women's sexual complaints? How does societal ambivalence about women's sexuality affect me?
* Body Image and Eating Disorders. Are all eating disorders a reaction to societal pressures to be thin?
* Polypharmacy. Why are some patients prescribed more than one type of psychotropic drug? Is this overmedicating?
* Finding a Psychotherapist. How do I know if a therapist is right for me? And how do I know what type of therapy I need?
* Anger. Why is it the most difficult emotion for many women to express?
* EMDR. What exactly is EMDR? Is it a reputable therapy?
* Depression and Anxiety. What do I need to know about psychopharmaceuticals? Does talk therapy help?
* Complementary Treatments for Depression and Anxiety. Does St. John's Wort really work? What else might help?

Lauren Slater, a brilliant writer who is a young therapist, takes us on a mesmerizing personal and professional journey in this remarkable memoir about her work with mental and emotional illness. The territory of the mind and of madness can seem a foreign, even frightening place-until you read Welcome to My Country.

Writing in a powerful and original voice, Lauren Slater closes the distance between "us" and "them," transporting us into the country of Lenny, Moxi, Oscar, and Marie. She lets us watch as she interacts with and strives to understand patients suffering from mental and emotional distress-the schizophrenic, the depressed, the suicidal. As the young psychologist responds to, reflects on, and re-creates her interactions with the inner realities of the dispossessed, she moves us to a deeper understanding of the complexities of the human mind and spirit. And then, in a stunning final chapter, the psychologist confronts herself, when she is asked to treat a young woman, bulimic and suicidal, who is on the same ward where Slater herself was once such a patient.

Like An Unquiet Mind, Listening to Prozac and Girl, Interrupted, Welcome to My Country is a beautifully written, captivating, and revealing book, an unusual personal and professional memoir that brings us closer to understanding ourselves, one another, and the human condition.