Rarely do we see inside the life and mind of a psychiatrist, but that’s exactly what we
get in With Hope in My Heart: Musings of a Spirited Psychiatrist. With candor and
openness, author François Mai shares how and why he ventured into psychiatry, the
lure of academia, and his professional triumphs and troubles along the way. Educated
in Apartheid-era South Africa, Mai takes his clinical practice across five countries:
South Africa, the United Kingdom, Australia, the US, and Canada. Inspired by his time
and adventures in these places, as well as his greatest influences, psychiatrists William
Sargant and George Engel, this memoir is for a diverse audience. Readers eager to
learn more about the history of psychiatry and its contemporary problems will enjoy
Mai’s commentary and professional anecdotes. Lovers of religion and spirituality
contextualized in a secular society will appreciate the ways these intersect with Mai’s
professional and personal lives.
With Hope in My Heart is more than a psychiatrist’s memoir. It’s a deeply intimate
look into the life of a man who endures the death of a brother who had life-long
schizophrenia, and himself had two life-threatening medical diagnoses. With themes
of hope, Mai navigates readers through tumultuous terrain of spirituality, morality,
politics, life, and death.

​

 

 

 

 

 

Also available at Books on Beechwood, 35 Beechwood Ave, Ottawa