My Life as a Psychiatrist - Memoirs and Essays

At The Age Of 12 Or 13, Ajita Chakraborty Read Moner Khela [The Games The Mind Plays] By Bijoylal Chattopadhyay, Who Interpreted The Characters Of Many Fictional Characters Through Psychoanalysis, Resulting In A Lifelong Fascination And Commitment To Psychiatry. As The First Woman Psychiatrist In India, Aged 82, Chakraborty Looks Back At Her Life And A Work, Talking Frankly About Herself, Her Unconventional Family And Broken Home, The 'Confusions' Of Her Childhood That Propelled Her To Becoming A Psychiatrist. Qualified As A Doctor, She Sailed To England In 1952, To Further Her Medical Education, Training As A Psychiatrist At The Well-Known Maudsley Hospital And The Institute Of Psychiatry In London, Working In British Mental Hospitals For Almost Ten Years, And Also Obtaining Qualifications Such As Dpm And Mrcp. She Returned To India In 1960, Where Modern Psychiatry Was Still A Fledgling, Considered As Subordinate To 'Neurology'. As The First Woman In The Field She Faced Considerable Hostility And Opposition, And Saw Her Dreams Of Setting Up An Advanced Department Of Psychiatry And Elevating Its Then Lowly Status Fail. Indeed The Book Throws Considerable Light On The Sociology On Medicine And Discusses Why Chakraborty And Her Friends Who Had Returned With Medical Qualifications Gained Abroad Were Thwarted In Their Attempts To Set Up A Modern Public Health System (Which Exists In A Haphazard Way Today]. Of Considerable Interest Is Chakraborty'S Discussion On Why Psychiatry Taught In The West Cannot Be Applied Directly In Another Culture, Emphasising The Need And Significance Of Transcultural Psychology In A Very Complex Society Like India. The Second Part Of The Book Offers A Selection From Her Essays, Published In Various Distinguished Journals, Which Are Indeed An Essential Part Of The Memoir As They Illustrate In 'Theoretical And Concrete Terms What Is Dealt With Anecdotally And Personally In The Memoir'.