Regeneration

I didn't have access to any of the books that I planned to read, so I snuck this one in there a few days ago. My former supervisor, Dr. Wai Wong, bought this for me as a goodbye gift when I left Cornell. He said he liked it because it combined two of his passions: therapy and war poetry.

What I didn't know when I read the book was that it is based on true characters and events. It (loosely?) follows the 

experience of a WW1 soldier who objects to the war and is ultimately forced into a mental institution. His psychiatrist (also based on a real person) is treating a large number of soldiers, who are mostly suffering from "shell shock"/PTSD. The psychiatrist is mostly conducting exposure therapy, which was apparently cutting edge at the time. He is contrasted with a colleague of his who treats symptoms through electrical shock applied to various areas of the body. The psychiatrist's own mental health also receives some exploration.

I can't decide if I liked the book. I guess I did but not a lot. It was hard for me to get into it because I have no interest in reading about war, but once he was in the mental institution, I found it more interesting. It is always intriguing for me to read about the development of psychological treatment, so that part was good. There was some attention to same-sex attraction/desire that was interesting.

This book is part of a trilogy, and I've been considering if I would like to read books 2 and 3. I'm leaning against it. While this first book was okay, and the other books might also be okay, I have a list of books that I'm really interested in reading, so I'll probably skip the rest of this trilogy.