We all trained for going to Mars during lockdown

Over a billion people around the world experienced different kinds of lockdown during the pandemic. This amounted to the greatest confinement in history.

It was as if much of the world's population entered an unplanned training exercise for a trip to Mars. And sadly we witnessed the serious impact on the mental health of people cooped up between four walls etc. Worse still, the psychological fallout from the experience of ‘cabin fever’ in being confined for long periods is still being felt

If you were wondering, that is why there was considerable anxiety about astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who unexpectedly had their recent trip to the international space station extended from 8 days to 9 months.

Despite their training, NASA knew that they would have to keep a close eye on them, give them lots of purpose with multiple tasks and experiments to complete in order to counter mental deterioration. It takes a lot of resilience to deal with being inside a large tin can for long periods.

In Cabin Fever: Surviving Lockdown in the Coronavirus Pandemic (Emerald, 2021), we revealed the research evidence for the psychological damage of confinement based on evidence from prisons (going stir crazy), hostage taking, solitary living and NASA investigations into long duration space flight. It is compelling and sobering.

Yet ironically, given the very real psychological threat of 'cabin fever', this raises some profound questions about what we do down on earth as much as space when it comes to confinement of people already experiencing severe mental illnesses.

Something of particular concern to me and others working in mental health is what we should be doing in the treatment of the mentally ill in prison-like secure care settings.

This specialist interest arises from my work as Professor of Health Humanities at The Institute of Mental Health. Whilst it is understandable that people whose minds are not entirely their own and who do terrible things to others and themselves when suffering from conditions such paranoid schizophrenia need to be in a secure environment, should this mean that the facilities should so starkly resemble a prison? Should their freedom of movement be quite so confining?

One wonders if the demand for retribution and punishment in society is blinding us to taking a more humane approach to their care given what we know about the damaging impacts of confinement on the human mind. This month, I broke free from academic writing to pen a switchback literary thriller novel about this: The Wonders of Doctor Bent.

In the novel, the worlds of Jason Hemp, an English lecturer, and Dr Bent, the unlikely Medical Director of high-security psychiatric hospital Foston Hall, come together in a dark tale of murder, revenge and abandonment. Attempting to track down his twin brother’s killer, Jason finds his life unravelling in unexpected and frightening ways, whilst visionary Dr Bent attempts to reform Foston Hall into a more humane, less confining, place of comfort, all while facing his own mental health challenges.

Coming back to fiction after many years of academic writing has been a release from a kind of intellectual confinement. Yet there has been tremendous pre-publication anxiety that all those years of professional work in mental health would not pass muster with those in the know; that the readerly hallucinations that I scaffold and provoke in my fiction might be deemed inaccurate at best or lacking credibility at worst; and that there may be objection to a novel that explores being compassionate to those who do terrible things to others or themselves, arguably with brains that, at least temporarily, might not be their own.

Anticipating such early soundings in advance reviews left me in dread. I am sure this is a feeling experienced by many writers with professional standing to lose by venturing into work-related fiction.

I can honestly say that I breathed deep sighs of relief as advance reviews came in, not least from some of the world’s leading figures in mental health. Their comments were like doses of anxiety-busting medication for which I am enormously grateful!

"A brilliantly written thriller which draws us into the dire consequences of adverse childhood experiences. It poignantly reveals the potential for recovery." — Gene Beresin MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

"Crawford is a master storyteller. Be prepared to be taken on a thrilling adventure that delves into the very essence of what makes us human.” — Professor Ahmed Hankir, Consultant Psychiatrist, and author of The Breakthrough

“A moving tale of loss and love. Dr Bent, an imperfect, thrill-seeking, motorcycle-riding healer, fights to transform the humiliating state of the public services. His revolutionary changes are undermined, and he is left wondering what it is all for and resolves to repair his own dark wounds.” — Kam Bhui CBE, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Oxford

"Brooding, brilliant and beautiful." — Dave Chawner, mental health campaigner and author of Weight Expectations

"Though the themes are dark, this novel is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit. Crawford at his very best." — Thomas Curran, Leading psychologist and author of The Perfection Trap

"A beautifully written and engaging psychological thriller that will keep you thinking long after the final page. With impeccable prose and a thought-provoking plot, this dark literary thriller not only captivates fans of the genre but also offers profound value to those with lived experience of or an interest in mental health, shedding light on the complexities of compassion and accountability." — Dr David Crepaz-Keay, Mental Health Foundation.

The Wonders of Doctor Bent is available at Amazon, WHSmith, Foyles, Waterstones, Foyles, Cranthorpe Millner, and all good bookshops.

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