The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head

A psychiatrist recounts some of his most intriguing cases from his more than twenty-year career in this captivating memoir. "Stories of human behavior at its most extreme. . . . With humor, compassion, empathy, and insight, Small searches for and finds the humanity that lies hidden under even the most bizarre symptoms." —Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind True stories are more bizarre than any fiction, and Dr. Gary Small knows this best. After thirty distinguished years of psychiatry and groundbreaking research on the human brain, Dr. Small has seen it all—now he is ready to open his office doors for the first time and tell all about the most mysterious, intriguing, and bizarre patients of his career. The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head is a spellbinding record of the doctor's most bewildering cases, from naked headstands and hysterical blindness to fainting schoolgirls and self-amputations. It is an illuminating journey into the mind of a practicing psychiatrist and his life in medicine as it evolves over time—a behind-the-scenes look at the field and a variety of mental diseases as they've never been seen or diagnosed before. You'll find yourself exploring the puzzling eccentricities that make us human. Often funny, sometimes tragic, and always compelling, Dr. Small takes you on a tour of his career that moves from the halls of a crowded inner-city Boston emergency room to the multimillion-dollar ski lodges of the nation's elite. In between, Dr. Small introduces a strange cast of true-life characters and conditions, while dealing with mysterious hysterical blindness, a man convinced that his penis is shrinking, secret double lives, and frighteningly psychotic romantic desires. His career and personal life come full circle when his own mentor becomes his patient, making Small realize that no one is beyond mental exploration—not even himself. "A remarkable achievement . . .uncannily transports the reader into a heretofore unfamiliar world of mental illness. Reading it will fascinate you, inspire you, and teach you more about other people and yourself than you ever thought you knew." —Sonja Lyubomirsky, author The How of Happiness and professor of psychology, UC Riverside "I found it hard to put this treasure of a book down, and still now reflect on the various lives [they] have so vividly shared through these thoughtful lessons in wisdom and what it means to be human." —Daniel J. Siegel, MD, author of Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation and professors of psychiatry at UCLA