Dreams & Memories

DREAMS & MEMORIES is the autobiography of Joan T. Sherman as seen & told in paintings & stories created as art therapy while she was a patient of Paul D. Lidstrom, M.D. from 1991 to 1993. A daughter of a successful Wall Street lawyer & glamorous mother, the story unfolds as "The Crab Thing" menaces the dreams of little Joan, a dream that reoccurs throughout her life for over 60 years. "Music to the People" is a picture of Joan as a child longing for a life in music & the arts, a life for which no education is allowed. "Territories, Great Neck - 1938" shows a happy scene of life in the suburbs of New York. The story progresses to "Annapolis, 1949" where Joan is a young bride & mother-to-be. Tragedy strikes suddenly with severe mental illness & incarceration in "Phipps Clinic," where unbelievably cruel treatment leaves Joan with post-traumatic stress left untreated for over 40 years. All is not sorrow, sadness & despair. "Love in a Cornfield" is a delightful painting of marital love in the great outdoors. The story progresses through a lifetime of sad & happy dreams & memories. Joan's mental health is shaky even though she has a successful career in broadcasting & in the arts. She searches for mental health & artistic expression. Her struggle is a testimony to the prodigious strength of the human spirit. The book has a happy ending as Joan puts together her marriage & is in recovery from depression & alcoholism. She starts a new career in her mid-sixties as an artist & in arts promotion. The book has a deep spiritual message with the "Bluebird of Happiness" triumphing over "The Crab Thing." Home at last, Joan is centered in her being - the Bluebird, representing the Holy Spirit, speaks in a still small voice, guiding her to the truth about herself & the world about her. The book has a message to the world at large & to those who suffer with mental illness, their families & the world of mental health care givers. Good mental health care can bring the mentally ill from a dark prison to happiness & light. $19.95 plus shipping & handling. Order from: Heart's Desire, P.O. Box 187, Madison, NH 03849-0187. 603-367-4764.Sherman, Joan T. is the author of 'Dreams & Memories' with ISBN 9780964242401 and ISBN 0964242400.