Description
This book tells the story of my battles within the mental health system over the last fourteen years. I have, from a psychiatrist's perspective, variously been diagnosed as hypomanic, schizophrenic, manic depressive and as having schizoaffective disorder - and in that order!
But from my point of view (and as an ex-journalist I decided to investigate the mental health system from the inside out!), I have simply been on an extraordinary spiritual journey, meeting the spirits of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, meeting a spiritually persecuting Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, meeting the ancient queen Cleopatra herself, meeting the devilish spirit of Dr. Josef Goebbels, before penultimately having sex with the female angel Jana and finally meeting the fallen angel Lucifer himself!
The book recounts the story of all the above, whilst also ending with a discussion and critique of contemporary psychiatry.
I do not believe myself to have been mentally ill. I believe myself to be a visionary.
About the Author
Michael Black was born in 1962, and Angels, Cleopatra And Psychosis describes his life and spiritual experiences within the British mental health system over the past fifteen years. The book stands up for the legitimacy of so-called psychotic experience, and questions the validity of the received medical model.
Michael grew up in Cheshire, where he attended Wilmslow Grammar School before doing an English and History degree at York University. He then completed a doctorate in anti-apartheid literature at Cambridge University, whilst variously working as a journalist and theatre producer.
Michael is the author of one novel, Crossing Out The Emperor, and six stage plays. He has received three Arts Council Playwrights Bursaries, and is currently working on a new novel and two film scripts.
The publication of Angels, Cleopatra And Psychosis is supported by Macclesfield Mind.