Review: Darkness Is My Only Companion by Kathryn Greene-McCreight

Title: Darkness Is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental Illness
Author: Kathryn Greene-McCreight
Released: April 1, 2006
Publisher: Brazos Press
Pages/Format: 176 (Paperback)
Genre: Nonfiction, Christian Memoir
Source: Purchased

Where is God in the suffering of a mentally ill person? What happens to the soul when the mind is ill? How are Christians to respond in the face of mental illness? In Darkness Is My Only Companion, Kathryn Greene-McCreight confronts these difficult questions raised by her own mental illness–bipolar disorder. She tackles often avoided topics such as suicide, mental hospitals, and shock therapy. Greene-McCreight offers readers a glimpse into the mind of a mentally ill person and practical advice for their friends, family, and clergy.

One Sentence Review: Darkness Is My Only Companion is an educational, insightful, encouraging, and well written account of the author’s experiences with bipolar disorder examined through a Christian theological lens.

In-Depth Review

Darkness Is My Only Companion is a a short book divided into three parts and thirteen chapters. In part one (chapters 1-6) Greene-McCreight recounts some of what she went through during the worst days of her illness including her experiences with mania and depression, thoughts of suicide, and her time as an inpatient at Yale Psychiatric Institute, which included undergoing electroconvulsive therapy. Though the entire narrative is sprinkled with theological reflections, part two (chapters 7-11) explores more thoroughly the theological questions raised by mental illness. In this section Kathryn discusses, among other things, the importance of memory in surviving depression, the role of feelings in faith, the relationship of sin and mental illness, and the usefulness of prayer in healing from mental illness. Part three (chapters 12-13) provides practical advice to friends, family, and clergy for supporting the mentally ill and guidance for choosing a therapist who is both competent and tolerant of the religious patient. Finally, in two appendices, Greene-McCreight explains how she uses Scripture to help her through tough times, provides symptom checklists for depression, mania, and schizophrenia, and contact information for various mental health organizations.

Electroconvulsive Therapy

I found this book to be very helpful in understanding what a bipolar person goes through, particularly the section on mania. While many Americans have suffered a bout of clinical depression at least once in their lifetime (6.7% of the adult US population suffers from major depressive disorder in any given year) and can therefore identify with the feelings associated with depression, mania is less common (only 2.6% of Americans suffer from bipolar disorder, which usually involves mania to varying degrees, in any given year) and carries more stigma because of its extreme outward expression which can often resemble that of a person on mind-altering drugs.

Dear God what is happening to me I can’t even speak. My mind races races zooms phrases run together ideas bleed what is happening calm down just calm down you are exaggerating. I believe, Lord; help my unbelief. Nothing is wrong. Nothing is wrong. Nothing nothing is wrong. … Snowstorm. Gorgeous exotic turbulent swirls of snow. Magic. The world tingles. My brain sparkles, all things connect. … Panic. Am breathing too fast, am going to choke, am going to lose my vision. I feel drunk but have had no drink. … Panic help someone help me. {Darkness Is My Only Companion, pages 50-51}

The author, by openly and articulately sharing her experiences of suicidal depression, mania, electroconvulsive treatment, and time spent in the locked ward of a mental hospital, is disproving and dismantling common misconceptions about the mentally ill–such as the false notion that mentally ill folk are generally unintelligent (Greene-McCreight has a Ph.D. from Yale) and not able to function in normal society (which depends on the severity of their disease). These wrong ideas are still popular in our culture in part, I believe, because mental illness is a highly unpleasant and uncomfortable subject which most people prefer to be ignorant about. So instead we default to false assumptions propagated by stereotypical portrayals of the mentally ill in the media.

My favorite element of the book was the collection of quotes and Scripture passages that Kathryn sprinkled liberally throughout the text. In the preface she notes:

I include throughout the book bits of Scripture and quotations from great figures of the Christian tradition to show how the “great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) helped, supported, and encouraged me in my illnesses. These are integral to the book, not just frosting. {Darkness Is My Only Companion, page 7}

These bits of wisdom certainly did not read as mere frosting. In fact, Kathryn often follows a quotation with her interpretation of it through the lens of her illness.

Darkness Is My Only Companion is a quick read, well written, and theologically sound. I think this is an important book for everyone to read, because it dispels the fear and paranoia surrounding mental illness and those who suffer from it. You never know when you might have the opportunity to be a friend to someone who suffers from a mental illness and has been unjustly marginalized because of it.

Other Reviews: Christianity Today | Living Wittily

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About Kathryn Greene-McCreight:

Kathryn Greene-McCreight (Ph.D., Yale University) teaches at Albertus Magnus College and is an assistant Episcopal priest. Her previous books include Ad Litteram: How Augustine, Calvin, and Barth Read the Plain Sense of Genesis 1-3 and Feminist Reconstructions of Christian Doctrine.