A leading psychiatrist has written an autobiography of his remarkable life as a doctor, preacher, broadcaster and author.
Elim member Dr David Enoch, 96, pictured above, has been in the forefront of the changing faces of society, psychiatry and the church, and his new book traces his life and the upheavals around us in the last 100 years.
His classic volume Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes (first edition, now out of print) sells for more than £1,000, and he’s now written his life story, Enoch’s Walk.
The son of a miner, David was brought up in a devout Welsh-speaking family in Pen-y-groes, South Wales. Finding Christ at an early age, he had thoughts of the Christian ministry, but they were interrupted when he was conscripted by the army and sent to India aged 18. This made him “angry with my God” and “full of doubts”, but four years in the army transformed his views.
When demobilised, he chose to work in medicine. This allowed him to continue as an active Christian and preacher while pursuing a career as one of the nation’s foremost psychiatrists, becoming a leading figure in “the freeing of patients from large asylums, and the golden era of modern psychiatry”.
He got his first consultancy post at Shelton Hospital, Shrewsbury, and later was ‘headhunted’ by Liverpool University Hospital department of psychiatry to take on the new post of consultant psychiatrist.
His classic book became a bestseller and made various syndromes – Tourette’s, de Clarembault’s, Othello, Ganser, Munchausen’s, Munchausen’s by proxy, and Couvade – a cause celebre after some well-publicised cases.
Dr Enoch has written other books, including Healing the Hurt Mind: Christian Faith and Psychiatry, inspired by a patient’s letter stating: “Dr Enoch was the first person who listened to me and asked me how I am. Healing began for me today.”
In his book I Want a Christian Psychiatrist, he comments, “You don’t necessarily need a Christian psychiatrist, just a competent psychiatrist who must respect your faith.”
One of the aims of his life was to bridge the gap between Christianity and medicine, and particularly to allay fears and suspicions Christians have of treatment for mental illness.
Sometimes a Christian will look upon mental illness as a failure in faith, but such an illness, Dr Enoch says, is no more a failure in faith than a physical illness is.
He says that while psychiatrists and counsellors can be of tremendous help to people, “there is a deficiency. They do not reach the heart of the problem. Yet that psychiatrist chair is now always full. The world chose us as the new pastors, but we are not; we are doctors.”
Dr Enoch adds that the pursuits of possessions, power and prestige cause breakdowns and the need for psychological treatments. “It’s fair to say that people tend to look to science to find answers, doubting religious and Christian teaching. But who was there when the heavens and earth were made?”
He believes the only way to complete wholeness is through the God who made us for his purposes. “Healing,” he says, “means wholeness, and wholeness requires that all aspects of man are embraced, including the body, mind and spirit.”
