Foreword

Any treatise that purports to expound upon an entire field, such as psychiatry, necessitates the author establish their authority to do so. Although the majority of this text is devoted to describing mental illness and the ever-evolving field of psychiatry in simple terms to laypeople, I felt it prudent to spend some time to explain who I am, how I came to be who I am, and what I have learned in the course of my career thus far working as a mental health treatment provider. In the first few chapters I will introduce myself more personally, moving then into how who I am informs what I do and how I think. 

If you are interested in learning more about mental illness, what it is fundamentally, and how the field of psychiatry aims to treat mental illness, I hope I can shed some light on what may sometimes feel like an abstruse subject matter, broadening and deepening your current understanding. I hope, too, to share my unique perspective with you—the ways I have come to understand this complex, clinical, human field as a clinician who has done this work, day in and day out, for twenty plus years.