Fiction full of psychological 'aha' moments
Dr Josephine Perry reviews 'The Family Retreat', a new novel from Bev Thomas (Faber).
06 September 2022
We all have a book in us right… but most of us as psychologists see ours as the non-fiction/self-help type. Bev Thomas has a fiction book in her (well actually two now) and has used her extensive psychological knowledge to bring an astuteness that most other books would miss, whatever their genre.
Thomas' book, The Family Retreat puts in you in the shoes of mum of two Jess, a GP on mental health leave, reflecting on what took her from a childhood as the sister of an anorexia sufferer to the Dorset cottage she has taken on for the summer.
There are so many themes we will recognise from our clinical work; domestic abuse, depression, family dynamics, misogyny, bullying, eating disorders, breakdowns and the medicalisation of poverty, but there is also joy and delight at the little things in life.
The Family Retreat is full of 'aha' moments of understanding, particularly where Thomas so accurately portrays the gripping, unescapable, sometimes utterly scary responsibility of being a mother; the fear, guilt and worries we can never shake off; the unconditional love we cannot help but feel. It felt as if she had secret access to the WhatsApp messages of my friends and I as we try to figure out how do everything for everybody – and still find a way to be ourselves. If this were a non-fiction book it might be called 'The reality of motherhood'.
The beauty of Thomas' writing is that while she tells a great story you can also hear the voices of the women she must have worked with in the past as an NHS Clinical Psych; the thoughts and feelings of women stuck in impossible situations, shared without judgement, only compassion. This gives such realism to her writing; the descriptions of walking on eggshells around someone with depression, or the terrible fear you have for your child when living with an abuser can only resonate so well because Thomas has heard similar stories so often.
As Jess (our narrator) attends therapy we get an additional angle, how we as psychologists might be viewed by our clients. The reflections this prompted have been valuable as a practitioner and so maybe this book has a little bit of self-help within it too.
- Reviewed by Dr Josephine Perry, BPS Chartered Sport Psychologist and author of The Ten Pillars of Success
