This book is the Turkish translation of Into the Abyss: A Neuropsychiatrist’s Notes on Troubled Minds, originally published by Oneworld Publications.

This book is about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, delusions, anorexia nervosa, conversion disorder, and denial syndrome. It is also about Thomas, who cannot get out of the vicious circle of his despair; Emma, who is driven into a coma due to her unfounded beliefs concerning her body; Junior, who is oppressed by the racism in his society; Christopher, who finds refuge in assuming the role of a patient when he cannot cope with the conditions; Caitlin, whose austere attitude leads to an eating disorder; and about every one of us.

Anthony David pulls the reader Into the Abyss through real-life narratives that are driven by physiological causes, genetic inheritance, or a traumatic accident, but also by protests, beliefs, desperations, and free will just flows away. The only way not to get lost in the darkness of this abyss is to rebuild the individual without considering the mind and body as two separate entities, to keep intact the continuity between the biological, psychological, and social spheres, and to remember that there is no reality outside the material brain.

“Professor David’s seven in-depth cases expose both the rifts and junctures of the brain and the disordered mind. By emphasizing the subjective inner life of his patients, he provides a welcome antidote to reductionist thinking of modern medicine while still adhering to sound principles of neuroscience.”

—Dr. Allan Ropper, Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School