Undiscovered Scotland

 

"The Crazy Psychologist" by Miller Caldwell is a fast moving and highly readable story about Dr Angie Lawrence, appointed as Clinical Director of the new Hazlenut Assessment Centre for difficult adolescents on the island of Rousay in Orkney. She is accompanied by her husband Sam, an established artist who is more than happy to find himself in a location with ever changing moods and an infinite variety of seascapes. Sam finds himself increasingly concerned by the way Angie handles the treatment of her sometimes difficult teenage charges. But despite some setbacks, Angie's approach sometimes makes a real and lasting difference to young people suffering from anorexia, behavioural problems, and to one boy who is electively mute. Meanwhile, she has to address the fears and expectations of the close-knit community in the midst of which the Assessment Centre has been placed, a task that means gaining the understanding of the islanders for what she is trying to achieve.

Angie herself has a past that allows her a true insight into the problems that have been experienced by those she is caring for. Effectively orphaned as a child and then abused while in care, hers is an approach that encompasses the presence on Rousay of Harry, an African Grey Parrot, and Arthur the Basset Hound. But then events far away begin to tug at her past, leading to the danger that the person she has worked so hard for so many years to become will simply unravel. Angie has to confront the demons of her childhood face to face, finding that some of them are indeed demons to be fought against and, hopefully, overcome: while others turn out to be far more complicated than she had ever thought possible. Will Angie learn to cope with a new reality born out of the rewritten personal history that emerges from this process? Will Sam and Angie grow together or drift apart as a result of all she learns and what she becomes? You get to the end of the book having thoroughly enjoyed the process of finding out.