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Benji Waterhouse is not only a psychiatrist on the frontline of NHS mental health services, he is also a stand-up comedian. Humour is often an underrated, misunderstood, and feared skill within the trauma and distress of such work, but it also might be necessary. A colleague and friend of mine who was working as a clinical psychologist within NHS psychiatry once walked bravely on stage as a stand-up comedian and said: “Hi, I'm a clinical psychologist in my day job, this means that I work with alcoholics, narcissists, psychopaths, some really difficult people; my patients are great though!” Like much humour, it points to something uncomfortable to acknowledge, but might nonetheless be true. In this case, it was the frailties of those treating the vulnerable and mentally ill, which is a theme of Dr Waterhouse's incredibly engaging and moving biography.
Waterhouse is not the first psychiatric worker who has turned their hand to humour, Jo Brand is an obvious forerunner, but he is surely one of the best. Perhaps humour is really useful in explaining some of the harsher realities of work within the NHS, and helping raise public consciousness and dispelling myths and prejudice about mental illness. Explaining the realities of life working in NHS services to former Minister for Health (Jeremy Hunt) was once described by comedian Frankie Boyle in the following joke, which is worth repeating: “trying to get him to understand the life of an overworked student nurse is like trying to get an Amazonian tree frog to understand the plot of Blade Runner”. Waterhouse leaves his readers with a deeper understanding of exactly what life is like on the frontline of NHS psychiatry, and we can only be better for this.
I wanted to review this book because it is one that I want every psychotherapy student I am course tutor or seminar leader for to read, in preparation for their mental health placement, and process of mental health familiarisation. I also wanted people in my personal life to b