Master of Lucid Dreams: In the Heart of Asia a Russian Psychiatrist Learns How to Heal the Spirits of Trauma (Paperback)

'The Master of Lucid Dreaming' is not, however, presented as a dry academic or ethnographic monograph but as the thrilling story of Dr Kharatidi's encounter with representatives of this Sufi tradition from Uzbekistan - representatives who are so concerned by the extent and proliferation of unresolved psychological trauma today that they are making available once jealously guarded knowledge. And that encounter was not with some toothless tribal greybeards but with a pair of extraordinary young men: 'Vladimir', who comes to speak in her home city of Novosibirsk, and 'Michael', who inducts her into this knowledge in and around the ancient city of Samarkand. But whilst these men are as much at home in the modern world as Dr Kharitidi is, their methods are ancient and unfamiliar: Michael uses storytelling, action teaching, trance induction and other techniques to provoke the experiences in his reluctant, ornery pupil that alone can allow her to learn what she needs.

Dr Kharitidi is a skilful and evocative writer, crafting a compelling tale from her experiences that reads as excitingly as a fast-paced novel. But embedded in her snappy prose are some truly astonishing, provocative insights. Amongst them, the suggestion that depression and anxiety are not illnesses in their own right, but healing reactions to profound trauma. Or the suggestion that, by failing to resolve our traumas, we allow them to incubate psychic forces that may ultimately commandeer our behaviour and cause us to perpetuate a cycle of violence and abuse. Or the suggestion that these 'spirits of trauma' can be passed on from one generation to another, aggregating themselves together in societies to become collective entities. There are echoes of Freud and Jung here, but echoes that reveal these two great pioneers to have only intimated fragments of the whole picture.

Dr Kharitidi clearly has abundant experience of trying to help people in severe distress: suicides, rape vicitims, abusers and self-harmers - and of seeing the limitations and tragic failures of conventional psychiatric methods. Nor does her account fight shy of addressing the central paradox: that victim so easily segues into victimiser. This makes discomfiting reading for those of us who like to see victims as 'innocents'. But through her unsentimental presentation of excruciatingly harrowing cases there also shines a powerful humanity - a warmth that unfolds as she begins to connect, under Michael's patient guidance, her own pain and trauma with that of patients and friends.

This is an important book that is guaranteed to get you thinking. I found that its revelations made uncommon good sense, enabling me to see something of the enormity and urgency of the problem we face. But it's not a book of answers - there are no techniques here, no methods that can be lifted off the page and put straight into action. And probably with good reason, too - these are desperate conditions, and require expert intervention. I'm glad, however, that this knowledge is being made available - and that people like Olga Kharitidi are being inducted into it.