Description
LIVES WITHIN A LIFE is a novel chronicling the onset and progression of schizophrenia upon the central character. The complexities and symptoms of the disorder are described with great clarity as more and more of the character's mind and ensuing behaviour are affected. Relationships and their significance are explored during the evolution of a spiritual journey, culminating in a cataclysmic finale.
Creative release, taking in the visual, literary and musical arts, illuminates the narrative. These elements and their influence convey the hidden beauty and compassionate nature of the lost and forlorn. The multi-layered intricacies of psychosis reveal an individual experiencing the truly extraordinary.
As the illness gains momentum, all aspects of its effects on the inner psyche become apparent in a uniquely descriptive manner. An existence encompassed by nightmares and demons, a life bringing new trials, which unearths the essence of the human condition, and the instinct to survive. The climax has its own twist and play on the perception of reality, bringing the novel to a powerful and inspiring conclusion.
ALL AUTHOR PROFITS FROM THIS PUBLICATION WILL GO TO SUPPORT SANE - A CHARITY THAT HELPS THOSE WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA AND OTHER SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS.
About the Author
Robert Bayley is a writer, composer and artist. For most of his adult life he has lived with paranoid schizophrenia. This has resulted in long periods of hospitalisation as the illness has ravaged his life. The persecutory voices and visions bombard his every day existence, causing him to descend into the hell of paranoiac despair. A myriad of medicinal treatments have been tried to keep the symptoms under some form of control, with the archaic major tranquillizers bringing horrendous side effects, to the current use of atypical neuroleptics. These work with greater precision, and so contribute some relief. This allows the author to capitalise on periods of positive and intense creativity. He has studied the visual arts, incorporating film, photography, ceramics and art history. He is a multi-instrumentalist, and composes and records music combined with spoken prose that conveys the horror of psychotic bombardment.
His creative endeavours are a method of coping with disorder and extremes, and his work, in whatever genre, attempts to articulate this. To tap into, and extract the profound nature of suffering, is what motivates Robert. His desire is to describe and transform that torment into constructive and inspiring realms. The words, chords and imagery are his tools.