Humpty Dumpty had a great fall... and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. The same holds true for those of us with a mental illness. The psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, etc. can assist, but it is up to the individual to create conditions which will allow recovery to happen.

The neurobiological basis of mental illness is often presented in a fatalistic way. That's the brain chemistry you've got, and that's what you're stuck with; as if the individual was unable to change the chemistry inside his or her own head. Breathing changes brain chemistry. So does excercise, the food you eat, the words you speak, the thoughts you think as well as how often you smile.

While drugs are capable of making radical changes in the chemistry of the brain, it is the slow changes over time which will help most in recovery.

"Thorough and informative without being technical...facinating...very enlightening." Psychiatric Rehabilition Journal (Fall 2004 Vol.28 No.2)

"You have made a complex issue easier to understand." Chief Kathryn Landreth, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.

An alarming problem is raging out of control in our country and world. Statistics say that proportionately everyone knows at least one or more persons, if not themselves, who is stricken with an addiction or another form of mental illness. On one hand we appear to be making an attempt to deal with the problems. On the other hand, the weakness of the methods along with the lack of conviction, have left barely a scratch on the surface of what is fast becoming an epidemic. And producing in its wake is a multidimensional negative effect upon all of society.

The inherited shame and denial that have accompanied these disorders for centuries, still prevent us from dealing with them forthrightly. However in the past, the number of victims did not present a significant threat to the safety and welfare of civilization. Nor then were the defining lines of right and wrong so clouded with controversy. Now we have neither situation to our benefit. Perhaps compromising values has tended to cause a blending effect, making it much more difficult to lead them out of their disconnected conditions. If we cannot provide the afflicted with a substantial lifeline of recovery, then the existing situation is like "the blind leading the blind".

We consider every illness of the body with the greatest of care, yet what good is a healthy body if it must live with a tormented soul? Somehow we fail to see the connection between the escalating violence that goes on in the world and the rising turmoil of mind and spirit disorders that exist largely unattended, not to mention the millions who suffer unmercifully in silence. It is an issue of urgency that needs to be clearly acknowledged on all fronts and raised from the bottom, to the top of our priorities.

It is probable that a real turnabout must stem from those who have been struck by these devastating circumstances within their own circle of loved ones. There is no greater passion against evil than that which is born from such intense personal pain, and remains the most important element in revolutionizing this wanton dilemma. Possibly the final cure will not be found in books and theories, but in the depths of wounded hearts. If we have the will to survive and find purpose in the tragedies, they can change us, rearrange our perspectives, give us wisdom, in ways otherwise unimaginable. The place to start is a real awakening to the consequences of evil that have been brought upon society by these forgotten diseases. Only then we are ready to fathom what must be done.

After nearly two decades of watching my youngest daughter evolve from a lovely young girl to a stranger battling multiple addictions, moreover witnessing the ineffectiveness of the entire range of recovery systems (within our reach), the results were utterly heartbreaking. However, out of these adversities would come an amazing vision-extraordinary in nature, yet altogether possible. It was a phenomenon which could indeed change the course of all that falls under the umbrella of mental illness. Ultimately this vision was the inspiration for writing Operation Soul Recovery.

An alarming problem is raging out of control in our country and world. Statistics say that proportionately everyone knows at least one or more persons, if not themselves, who is stricken with an addiction or another form of mental illness. On one hand we appear to be making an attempt to deal with the problems. On the other hand, the weakness of the methods along with the lack of conviction, have left barely a scratch on the surface of what is fast becoming an epidemic. And producing in its wake is a multidimensional negative effect upon all of society.

The inherited shame and denial that have accompanied these disorders for centuries, still prevent us from dealing with them forthrightly. However in the past, the number of victims did not present a significant threat to the safety and welfare of civilization. Nor then were the defining lines of right and wrong so clouded with controversy. Now we have neither situation to our benefit. Perhaps compromising values has tended to cause a blending effect, making it much more difficult to lead them out of their disconnected conditions. If we cannot provide the afflicted with a substantial lifeline of recovery, then the existing situation is like "the blind leading the blind".

We consider every illness of the body with the greatest of care, yet what good is a healthy body if it must live with a tormented soul? Somehow we fail to see the connection between the escalating violence that goes on in the world and the rising turmoil of mind and spirit disorders that exist largely unattended, not to mention the millions who suffer unmercifully in silence. It is an issue of urgency that needs to be clearly acknowledged on all fronts and raised from the bottom, to the top of our priorities.

It is probable that a real turnabout must stem from those who have been struck by these devastating circumstances within their own circle of loved ones. There is no greater passion against evil than that which is born from such intense personal pain, and remains the most important element in revolutionizing this wanton dilemma. Possibly the final cure will not be found in books and theories, but in the depths of wounded hearts. If we have the will to survive and find purpose in the tragedies, they can change us, rearrange our perspectives, give us wisdom, in ways otherwise unimaginable. The place to start is a real awakening to the consequences of evil that have been brought upon society by these forgotten diseases. Only then we are ready to fathom what must be done.

After nearly two decades of watching my youngest daughter evolve from a lovely young girl to a stranger battling multiple addictions, moreover witnessing the ineffectiveness of the entire range of recovery systems (within our reach), the results were utterly heartbreaking. However, out of these adversities would come an amazing vision-extraordinary in nature, yet altogether possible. It was a phenomenon which could indeed change the course of all that falls under the umbrella of mental illness. Ultimately this vision was the inspiration for writing Operation Soul Recovery.

The short stories are born out of fifty years of psychiatric and general nursing. They are based on truth...my truth...as my memory serves me. My tales start from behind the barred windows of a mental hospital with distraught patients and little effective treatment. Hierarchy and patriarchy were the authority. The psychiatric medications were just coming into full use. My stories reveal the lives of those patients and the nurses who cared for them.

After leaving the mental hospitals I nursed on acute psychiatric units with some bizarre stories to tell. I help the reader to understand the illnesses and offer suggestions as how to relate to the individuals who suffer from them. I have tried to write the stories so that the reader can put a face to the characters and gain insight into mental illness and its devastating effects.

My career culminated as an instructor at a university college. I brought magic to the classroom with my passion and my stories. I want the reader to enjoy my experiences working with students and share in the lives of the elderly clientele we encountered.

I write of my successes and my failures. I write what is real without glamour or falsehoods.

Most professionals who are currently involved with people, regarded as having Asperger's syndrome, would recognize the condition as high-functioning autism. Because of the level of intelligence, related to people with Asperger's syndrome, the condition enables the sufferer to develop coping strategies, with the support of professionals. At present, there are professionals who have limited knowledge of Asperger's syndrome, despite the availability of information about the condition. The purpose of this book is to give clear, concise information, from those who know about Asperger's syndrome, at first hand.

One of the principal areas of difficulty for Aspergers lies in social awareness and cohesion. This is referred to throughout this book. This book also provides strategies for professionals, as well as a map, to navigate through that which will facilitate a greater comprehension of the difficulties faced by those with this condition. This information is given with the proviso that professional people work with people with the condition and meet them half way, so that the AS person can fill-in the gaps on how the condition affects them personally.

We believe that there is every reason for early intervention in Asperger's syndrome. Early diagnoses of the condition will help to avoid difficulties, which could effectively hamper an Asperger child's development. It is unfortunate that people are being diagnosed with the condition well into adulthood, by which time other mental health problems have arisen, making it harder to create strategies for the future.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall... and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. The same holds true for those of us with a mental illness. The psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, etc. can assist, but it is up to the individual to create conditions which will allow recovery to happen.

The neurobiological basis of mental illness is often presented in a fatalistic way. That's the brain chemistry you've got, and that's what you're stuck with; as if the individual was unable to change the chemistry inside his or her own head. Breathing changes brain chemistry. So does excercise, the food you eat, the words you speak, the thoughts you think as well as how often you smile.

While drugs are capable of making radical changes in the chemistry of the brain, it is the slow changes over time which will help most in recovery.

"Thorough and informative without being technical...facinating...very enlightening." Psychiatric Rehabilition Journal (Fall 2004 Vol.28 No.2)

"You have made a complex issue easier to understand." Chief Kathryn Landreth, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.

This book deals with automatic responses such as pain, fear, anxiety, the symptoms of primary mental disorders, dreams, repression, hypnosis, laughter, tears, response to stage and screen plays, structural responses such as cerebral lateralization, and so forth. The reason why all those phenomena are studied together is that, according to the theory presented in this book, all such automatic responses have adaptive, self-protective functions that contribute to the realization of survival, and that most of them seek to protect not only all sorts of interests and the physical health of the person but also, and primarily, his or her mental health. In reality, this statement about the general function of automatic responses is almost a tautology, because they all are created by evolution, and evolution is directed to realize adaptation, success, and survival; moreover, proper mental functioning is necessary for realizing survival. Therefore the real problem is to understand the particular self-protective functions of particular automatisms and how they discharge those functions, not that they have such functions. Despite this fact, for example, the symptoms of primary mental disorders are considered by the authors of the DSM and by everyone else as harmful manifestations of unknown dysfunctions, and their self-protective functions are totally ignored. It is shown in this book that the harmfulness of symptoms is due to their side effects.

Mental disorders, dreams, and other automatic responses are insufficiently, or even not at all, understood, because (1) mental processes cannot be observed and are even unconscious to a great extent, (2) the experimental causation of mental disorders is ethically unfeasible, and (3) psychologists do not try to construct theories because they do not know how to do it and are also discouraged by the fact that Freud's theories turned out to be unscientific.

Newton explained the method that he used in constructing his theory of mechanics thus: "Propositions [that constitute the basic principles of theories] are deduced from the phenomena and made general through induction." He integrated such "propositions" with empirical and semi-empirical knowledge to explain and predict many mechanical phenomena and thus proved that his propositions were correct. This is the method used in this book to construct a theory of automatic responses and to test it.

A theory is empirically proved to be correct, or viable, by its usefulness in explaining, predicting, and controlling the phenomena in its field of validity. In this book, (a) the functions of several automatisms that are either discovered through research or are considered normal components of everyday behavior are explained on the basis of the theory, (b) the meanings and functions of about 500 symptoms and 200 dreams are likewise explained in detail, (c) the life experiences of those who produced them are predicted in general terms, (d) the particulars of those experiences are exposed, (e) the causal relations between those experiences and the resulting automatisms are explained, and (f) many examples of eliminating the symptoms and their harmful side consequences are presented, which constitute successful cases of psychotherapy. All these detailed explanations, predictions, and controls of particular phenomena constitute more than 2000 empirical proofs of the theory about the general function of automatisms. No other theory in the history of science has been put forth with so many empirical proofs. Future generations will have difficulty in understanding why the functions of automatic responses have not been understood earlier.