Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface, Martha Manning, San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995. (Hardback, 197 pages, $20.00)

In Undercurrents, psychotherapist Martha Manning, Ph.D., uses revealing excerpts from a personal journal to tell the story of her own experience with a severe and medication-resistant depression. Dr. Manning's writing is sparked by her candor, sharp wit, and uninhibited sense of humor. Fascinating and sometimes surprisingly intimate scenes from her daily life propel the narrative. Also included are musings about her work as a professor of psychology and clinical psychologist; her religious and spiritual life; and her relationships with family members, colleagues, and friends. A forthright description of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), the only treatment that relieved Dr. Manning's near-suicidal depression, demystifies this much-maligned technique. Undercurrents has something to say to everyone whose life has been touched by depression—not only patients, but also family members, friends, and mental health professionals. Patients will find much to identify with, for Dr. Manning captures the experience of depression with a vividness reminiscent of William Styron in his book Darkness Visible.

The emptiness of the depression turns to grief, then to numbness and back again. My world is filled with underwater voices, people, lists of things to do. They gurgle and dart in and out of my vision and reach. But they are so fast and slippery that I can never keep up. . . . All escapes are illusory—distractions, sleep, drugs, doctors, answers, hope. . . . (p. 99)

Family and friends of someone who has had a severe and lengthy depression will recognize her husband's frustration and despair over his wife's condition.

"No, Martha . . . I don't think you know what it's like to have to manage everything alone. Keara [their 12-year old daughter], the house, the families, the friends. I dread calling you. I dread coming home to you because I don't know how you'll be. You are receding every day. I'm living with a ghost. And I don't know how much longer I can take this." (p. 92)

Months passed. As Dr. Manning's depression deepened, she consoled herself with thoughts of death. First her therapist and then her psychiatrist suggested that her best hope for recovery might be ECT. This suggestion was not well received. After another month of deterioration, a still dubious but desperate Dr. Manning checked into a local hospital for ECT. After only two treatments, two days apart, Dr. Manning's sleep improved. That seemingly slight change marked the beginning of her halting climb out of depression. Treatments and improvement continued. Although ECT, like other treatments, is less than perfect, Dr. Manning readily affirms its effectiveness. "I will never be the ECT postergirl. I am the first to admit the downside—confusion and memory loss. But damn it, it worked." (p. 166) Other mental-health professionals may be surprised at Dr. Manning's reaction to life on an inpatient psychiatric unit.

Being shepherded from one stupid group to the next is my punishment for all those times my patients bitched about life on inpatient units and I told them [to] "cooperate" and "get as much as you can out of it." We in mental health . . . have positive intentions, . . . but benign tyranny is no less oppressive than malevolent tyranny. (p. 133, 134)

Her insight about a therapist's role, however, is a tribute to all "care professionals" worthy of that name.

[My] memories of my own doctors remind me that the process of just walking the road with someone is so important. The communication of hope, the administration of gentleness, and the sharing of some part of self can make a long lonely journey, in all its circuitousness, almost bearable. (p. 151)

As Undercurrents draws to a close, Dr. Manning movingly describes the joys and fears of returning to a full life. It will never be the one she had before, but she treasures its blessings in a new way. Readers will long remember Dr. Manning's story—told in her own marvelous voice—and wish her well.

by Anne Heasty, M.S.
DRADA Book Committee
Smooth Sailing: Spring 1995

Click here to order the book Undercurrents: A Therapist's Reckoning with Her Own Depression, by Martha Manning

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website