Paul Schimmel’s “Someone Saved My Life Today”

Reviewed by: Catharine Bailey 

Paul Schimmel's recent book titled ‘Someone saved my Life Today’ highlights his  gifts as a poet, philosopher, psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Throughout the book he  shows us how psychoanalytic thought can be viewed through many different lenses. This  is a book that can be read straight through from cover to cover, or dipped into and  returned to later. It is both enjoyable and informative. 

If you are in the mood for poetry, the chapters on W.B.Yeats and T.S.Eliot and  Samuel Beckett are a wonderful read. Paul reflects on how these poets used poetry as a  way of making meaning of their lives, and that poetry has been used as a form of self analysis for centuries. It occurred to me while reading these chapters, that the phrase  ‘soul searching’ has added meaning when it comes to reading or writing poetry.  

Turning to the chapter on Yeats, there is a poignant sense of an unfinished life, as if  life itself was a ‘preparation for something that never happens.’ Yeats had a lifelong  preoccupation with idealised romantic love, and his poems seemed to serve the dual  purpose of an essential creative source of renewal, and a place where he could be  protected or ‘masked’ against fragmentation of the self.  

T.S. Elliot’s famous poem ‘The Waste Land,’ appears to represent a destructive  place in the poet’s mind where the various characters in different situations reveal his own  fragmented self. Perhaps due to a belief in the creative energy of his poetry, Elliot seemed  to find contentment at the end of his life.  

In another chapter Paul reflects on Beckett’s play ‘Waiting for Godot,’ and adds a  beautiful and poignant poem of his own that captures the humanity of the play.  Interestingly Beckett also underwent a 2 year analysis with Bion following the sudden  death of his father.  

Interwoven amongst the chapters on the poets, Paul deftly weaves his thoughts  about psychoanalysis together with ideas on philosophy and psychiatry. I recall reading  Paul’s psychiatry paper ‘Medicine and the Manic Defence’ [1998] for the first time many  years ago, where he discusses the reductionist ‘manic defence’ or quick fix approach of  biological psychiatry, compared to the long term approach of psychotherapy. In  psychotherapy therapists are frequently faced with the reality of their own frustration in  hoping that the patient will recover quickly. No doubt rapid interventions are required to  save lives in psychiatry, but this isn’t the end of the patient’s story. Many, if not most  patients with mental illnesses tend to recover slowly if at all and Paul’s paper continues to  echo my own thoughts on this subject today. Some of these ideas are pick up again and  reflected on in the next chapter ‘Psychoanalysis; What is it and why is it hated.’ [2009]  In a more philosophical vein Paul devotes two chapters to ‘Mind over matter;  Philosophical aspects of the mind – brain problem’ [2001] where he presents the historical  and contemporary perspectives of this vexed question, and ‘Mind over matter?  Implications for psychiatry’[2001].  

I haven’t touched on the chapters on Freud and a few others, but I recommend  that the reader experience for themselves this wonderful book. 

Finally I wondered about the title ‘Someone Saved my Life Today,’ and have come  to the conclusion that Paul highlighted in so many ways, that it is ourselves who possess  the creative healing energy. Perhaps we can begin some of this healing process through  poetry, philosophy, psychoanalysis and more; but ultimately it is ourselves that save us in  the end. To my mind the meaning of saving myself involves a leap of faith when all hope  has gone, and I think that this is aptly implied in the title.  

(Paul’s book is published by International Psychoanalytic Books in New York. Copies are available  from him at: pschimmel51@gmail.com The cost is AUD40 plus postage within Australia.)