Growing Up? : A Journey with Laughter

Growing Up? is written by a well established author, previously writing in a quite different genre, that of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and counselling. But this book is written for an entirely different readership. Casement has put together a fascinating account of his strange journey from a privileged background, through schools and national service and through university, avoiding throughout the pull of his family for him to join the Royal Navy. Instead, he leaves university with a degree but heads straight into becoming a bricklayer's mate. From there, eventually, he gets through the vicissitudes of Probation and Social Work, and the hilarious experiences of trying to furnish his first flat. He thus moves into what he describes as the "real" world--getting what his family would regard as a "real job" (or two). But despite that, he continues on his unpredictable journey--into becoming a psychotherapist and then a psychoanalyst: what his mother thought was "training to become a psychotic." This book is filled with laughter, the author laughing at himself and inviting the reader to join with him in this.