A Common Link In Mental Health Problems? ‘Selfhood’ by Dr Terry Lynch
Selfhood
Amazon.com & Amazon.co.uk
Dr Terry Lynch has been working with people experiencing mental distress for 30 years – first as a GP and now as a psychotherapist in his own recovery-focused practice in Ireland. His first book, Beyond Prozac, was widely praised and his latest book: Selfhood: A Key to the Recovery of Mental Wellbeing, Mental Health and the Prevention of Mental Health Problems – the first of an upcoming series – is another valuable book to help those struggling with their mental health.
Throughout the years he has practised, Dr Lynch has observed some key features which his patients and clients struggle with – their selfhood – and he considers this to be a common link for those struggling with mental health issues. Selfhood has been written to help those living with mental health problems and also as a preventive for mental illness.
Selfhood, as Dr Lynch describes it, is about feeling in control of your life, feeling empowered and living with self-confidence. It is a much wider concept than the often mentioned ‘self-esteem,’ but in a similar way, low and high selfhood does indicate difficulty or ease when handling life and its challenges. Finding and recovering your true sense of self is the goal of the book.
Here are a few aspects to look at when considering how well developed, or not, a person’s selfhood is:
- How does a person handle emotion? Are they closed down or are they open and fully able to express themselves and engage with their own emotional life?
- How amenable is someone to change? Do they want to remain childlike or do they enjoy growing up, gaining independence and having responsibility in life?
- How are an individual’s relationships? Do they experience fraught, difficult and emotionally unsupported relationships or do they achieve successful and life-enhancing bonding?
- How does a person cope with difficulties? Do they use avoidance and defensive strategies, such as drinking, drugs, compulsions etc., or do they find healthy coping mechanisms?
- How stable is a person’s emotional world? Do they often experience extreme emotional distress and constant loss of equilibrium in response to normal life events or do they respond in a more balanced way and are able to manage and cope?
To attempt to strengthen a person’s vital selfhood, Lynch offers advice and exercises and the text is scattered with wonderful analogies and powerful illustrations which anyone can relate to. The many self-help steps outlined include: targeted daily action, reflection, being mindful and meditating, keeping a journal and using affirmations. As an action based book it shows how, alongside appropriate medication and counselling, there is hope for an individual to develop high selfhood which can then help them to recover some emotional equilibrium and mental wellbeing.
Although this book is directed at those with existing and severe mental health problems – such as clinical depression, bipolar and schizophrenia – it could also be extremely useful to anyone who struggles with their emotional world, who experiences self-sabotage and has dark and unreachable emotional spaces within them and cannot successfully form meaningful relationships. As a recovery workbook it is also helpful for those who work in the field of mental health and for the family of sufferers.
Dr Terry Lynch practices, writes and speaks on the subject of mental health and is a powerful advocate for the often disenfranchised and misunderstood people who suffer from mental illness and the inappropriate treatment which is frequently offered to them. There is warmth to his prose and a genuine and supportive caring tone which is much needed for those who are emotionally fragile. You will see this in evidence on his YouTube introduction video.
Selfhood contributes, with depth and wisdom, to a self-help field which often, inaccurately, touts quick-fixes for serious problems. This is not what you will find here. This is careful, measured and based on knowledge and practice. As such it is a valuable and much needed addition to the field of mental health and wellbeing.
Thank you so much to Dr Lynch for sending me a copy for this review.
Thank you Ruth. This is an excellent review. Very well written and a book I will be interested in reading. I hope you will have a wonderful holiday season my friend, my best to you, Penny 🙂
Thank you so much Penny, I’m pleased it reached out to you – it really is a meaningful self-help book. I wish you the most lovely holiday season too. I will be over to see you soon – unfortunately I have been ill and out of action, hence my absence. Warmest wishes as always to you and Christina and all of your family xx 🙂
I’m sorry to hear you have not been well Ruth, I hope you are doing better now ~ take care of you dear friend! Thank you for your lovely wishes for the family, very much appreciated. 🙂 xox
So kind of you Penny, thank you. Take good care xx
Hi Ruth, so you have been unwell also. I have been having trouble with kidney stones. “OUCH” hope you are feeling a lot better now.
I do not consider my “self-hood” to be underdeveloped. Over the years we build up a level of confidence, that gives us the power to confront any obstacle that is a threat to our well-being.
I could tell just by reading your well written review, that this book would not enhance my experience of life in anyway.
I have stared death in the face and was sure i was going to die. I prepared myself for it and intended to die like a man, Not like some quivering mollusk. But thankfully life was not finished with me. Or perhaps I was not finished with life.
Be well my friend and have a wonderful week ahead.
Hi Kenny, thanks so much for reading the review and leaving your thoughts. Such huge life-changing events certainly require us to dig deep. As we know, though, people do vary with how they approach such things and I have sadly seen many people whose confidence has not always built as the years have gone by. I’m so glad that you had such strength inside of you and that you are still here to talk about it! I hope that your pain eases very soon and thank you so much for your kind words to me. (I have an email re. zoosk from you but I cannot access it as it requires me to login to a fb account which I don’t have!! I’m not ignoring your mail.) 🙂 🙂
Don’t worry about the zoosk thing.. I intended to invite just one person. But when i clicked, it sent invitations to all my contacts lol
You… “ignore my mail” I never thought that for one second 🙂
I did a similar thing once with LinkedIn!! 🙂
A great Book review Ruth, and I have to agree our minds help us so much in our healing. That state of mind can help strengthen our energy and healing process.. Our Emotions play a huge part in how we tackle a health problem… We can either fight it or give in…
I found self help books invaluable in helping see my own health problems in a different light..
So sorry to hear you have had a recent hic-cup again in your health Ruth, I do hope that you are rebuilding your strength again now…
Thank you for your valued Visit
Sue x x x
Hi Sue, so glad you enjoyed the review. I do agree with you that good self-help books can be invaluable in helping us deal with life and events and our responses to them. Thank you for your kind thoughts, I really do appreciate them. I will be over to you again soon as I have lot to catch up on!! Love to you xx 🙂
Hi Ruth, hoping you are feeling better this weekend…. Sending you my thoughts of well wishes..
Sue xoxo
So kind Sue, thank you. Slowly improving. You take care too xx
This sounds very good .. I wonder if it’s too late to put it on my Christmas list?
Pop it on Carol, it’s worth it! Thanks so much for visiting and leaving a comment – really appreciate that. Hope you have a great holiday season. My best to you, Ruth
Thanks Ruth .,, really enjoyed your review and appreciated the link to Terry Lynch’s video on YouTube, though he didn’t go into much detail … I guess you have to but the book! … Just read in the comments above that you have been poorly … hope you’re feeling much better now. Best wishes, JohnM
Thanks so much John, glad you enjoyed the review! Thanks also for your kind thoughts – really appreciate them. Hope you have a great holiday season and New Year. My best to you, Ruth.
Relevant and helpful, Ruth. This isn’t my field, but due to personal circumstances and experience, I’d have to say it seems to me that people struggle to identify self when they have been emotionally traumatized or abused as well, when they have spent many years being defined by someone who does not have their best interested at heart. Hard to move forward and break out of the negative patterns of behavior and self-talk and be one’s true self. Seems like this book would be very helpful.
Hi Angela, yes, you offer some really wise thoughts. Being controlled, judged and abused by someone else, in childhood or adulthood, leads to a terrible erosion and corrosion of self. This book would be really helpful for those situations. Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment. Take good care, Ruth
Hello Ruth,
Selfhood sounds like an excellent and – very much – needed book. Your review highlights that it would be a worthwhile book for all who struggle with mental health issues.
Thank you.
Stuart/Ross
Thanks so much Ross – really great to see you here and thanks also for the tweet on ‘Selfhood.’ It really is a worthwhile and helpful book, so glad you enjoyed the review. Best always to you! 🙂