What is insanity? Do you truly wish to know, or do you simply bury this question into the deepest recesses of your psyche?



Perhaps all of us have the potential for losing our cherished grip on the 'real'. I don't, because I've been a respected psychotherapist for 25 years and am very balanced, but most of you probably do, which is why you must read The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.



In 25 years of practice, I have never come across a book as raw, powerful or honest as The Gruffalo. Although most of my colleagues see it as controversial, I make it a requirement for all of my patients to read this work and be able to recite its chilling rhymes by heart.



Why? Because The Gruffalo is the only modern book to deal with psychosis and delusion in a way that even a child can understand. My own children are encouraged to read it every night. Sometimes, I come into their rooms without warning an hour before the sun rises, shake them awake and have them recite a particular passage. If they fail, they must start again from the beginning. This may seem harsh, but as Cacciopo and Petty (1979) have demonstrated, persistent repetition has a relationship to attitudinal response. My method is designed to strengthen them against insanity, and the results are promising. They will now go for days at a time without speaking; a clear sign of enhanced introspection.



To understand why this work is so effective, let us examine Donaldson's ingenious allegorical construction.



The Gruffalo follows a mouse with delusions of grandeur and textbook manic tendencies. As he interacts with the other animals in the forest, we begin to see as well that he suffers from acute bouts of paranoia. He is certain that each animal he encounters wants to devour him, and to compensate for this begins to craft a story around a mythical creature called the gruffalo, his speech pattern erratic and nervous:



“A gruffalo? What’s a gruffalo? A gruffalo! Why, didn’t you know? He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws.”



Chilling. Even laymen can see that the gruffalo is a textbook shadow-projection. The qualities that the mouse himself has split off from his own psyche have now morphed into a monster - a Mr. Hyde to his Dr. Jekyll. Terrified by the mouse's insanity, the other animals flee, presumably to find him an eminent psychotherapist.



The mouse travels deeper into the forest, slowly losing his grip on reality. And finally, at the pinnacle of this nightmarish fable, he goes completely insane. In the depth of his hallucinatory hell he conjures his own shadow in physical form. There is no escape now: he must confront the gruffalo, a terrifying beast of his own making. Confused and manic, the mouse travels back through the forest, believing the gruffalo to be walking beside him the whole time. The other animals, clearly terrified at the mouse's incoherent ramblings to thin air, flee once again, unable to help the mouse because they aren't an eminent psychotherapist.



But something intriguing is taking place during this psychotic episode. The gruffalo begins to respect the mouse, believing him to be the one scaring the animals away. Here Donaldson expertly presents a single, fragmented individual, whose two core sub-personalities are simultaneously in conflict and working toward wholeness.



In an evocative moment of unity, the mouse threatens to 'eat' the gruffalo, quite literally deciding to integrate his shadow back into himself. The resulting disappearance of the gruffalo is a triumph of healing; a message that however fragmented our psyche may be, healing is possible even in the darkest of moments.



I have given the book 4, rather than 5 stars, because I feel it lacks the presence of an eminent psychotherapist. In my many letters to Ms. Donaldson, I have suggested that, should there be a sequel, a psychotherapist might come in at the end and help the mouse. This psychotherapist doesn't have to look like me, of course, but I have provided her with photos and even a caricature should she need inspiration. I am confident that she will include my suggestions - I am, after all, at the top of my field - but until then I would urge you to read the original if you want to absolutely sure you, or your children, don't go insane.