MADNESS: Stories of uncertainty and hope : Jonathan Ball : 9781776190133 : 1776190130 : 20 Apr 2020 : A patient is standing in the middle of the river. He gazes across the water to the city and the mountain above where the sun is setting. His back is turned to the hospital. The nurses are waiting for him patiently on the river bank. He seems uncertain whether to cross the river or to return. There is no danger. He is on the edge, in an in-between space, as is the hospital where I have worked as a specialist psychiatrist for over twenty-five years. For many of us, mental illness is shrouded in mystery, and our understanding of it largely influenced by misrepresentations in the media is often founded upon misconceptions and fear. In Madness: Stories of uncertainty and hope, Dr Sean Baumann, who has spent 25 years as a psychiatrist at Valkenberg Hospital in Cape Town, lifts the veil on madness, arguing for a more nuanced and empathetic understanding of mental illness. In this book, Baum