While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

Description 'While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks' is based upon the author's own real life experience of mental breakdown, hospitalisation and subsequent detention under Section 5(2) and Section 2 of the Mental Health Act 1983, beginning in the Spring of 1989 and lasting for the duration of seven months. The story is presented as a fictionalised account. The author assumes the role of Alex, the female patient in the 1980s at Blackwood Psychiatric Hospital, housed within the precincts of an Old Victorian asylum. 'While Shepherds Watched their Flocks' has been written over a period of years and, while the basic story remains unaltered, its presentation has changed to reflect the author's growing awareness of the events that surrounded her breakdown. Knowledge gained whilst concurrently studying psychology at the University of London has greatly assisted in enabling the author to make thorough appraisal of her own illness. The book comes to a positive climax as Alex leaves the unit to re-enter life in the community.