Fiction can be a powerful adjunct to mental health education and practice, its capacity to clarify and enlighten aspects of the field beyond doubt. With a rare gift for making the scholarly accessible, Liam Clarke presents an original interpretation of mental health issues based on some of the greatest works of English fiction. Utilizing plays and novels, as well as a wide range of critical sources, he provides many fascinating and provocative insights into human distress, its effects and consequences both past and present. If we seek to encounter people and not to decode them, so must we look at ourselves from whatever perspectives we can. This groundbreaking book makes a fine contribution to an enterprise that is as necessary as it is enjoyable and rewarding.