NONFICTION - May 5, 1996

WELCOME TO MY COUNTRY: A Therapist’s Memoir of Madness by Lauren Slater (Random House: $22; 199 pp.). At the heart of therapist Lauren Slater’s stunningly written account of her work with severely mentally ill people is the belief that “psychiatry and psychology, while paying homage to the significance of empathy and connection, have done little in the way of really revealing themselves and their practitioners, and connection is at least in part based on revelation, the stripping off of the mask.” In this regard, Slater is unafraid to go the distance. Her book is relentless in its mask-stripping, yet instead of indulgence the act of revealing is handled with beauty and bravery.

Writing with a deep regard for the six patients (in some cases they are composites of real people), Slater bridges much of the gap between the country we all agree is real and the one inhabited by those with severe disorders. There is Joseph, who is dominated by his own fractured language; Marie, whose untreatable depression has ruled her entire life; and finally, there is Slater herself. In a brilliant final chapter, she recounts her own experience as a mental patient in the very hospital, the very ward, where she has been asked to treat a suicidal, bulimic woman.

If “Welcome to My Country” has a flaw, it is that occasionally Slater’s writing becomes a bit precious. It does not, however, detract from the power of this memorable book.