Foiling the followers

To be stalked is an unhappy experience. The consequences range from a continuing disquiet to gross disruption of one’s life, thoughts of suicide, and the development of a range of psychiatric disorders. Since some victims keep quiet about being stalked its exact prevalence is not known, but one large survey in the United States found that 8% of women and 2% of men had been stalked at some time in their lives. Usually it goes on for months, but occasionally it continues for years.

In spite of all this it is difficult to find a comprehensive, up-to-date and clearly written account of what happens, who does it and what one can do about it. This book does all that, and much more. Pathe is well qualified to write it, being a consultant forensic psychiatrist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health in Melbourne, where she has been treating stalkers in the world’s first clinical outpatients program, since the early 1990s. She is co-director of the Stalking and Threat Management Centre and is co-author of the best-selling Stalkers and their victims, and winner of the American Psychiatric Association’s Guttmacher Award for an outstanding contribution to the literature on forensic psychiatry.

The book is relevant both to our patients and to us. Many doctors receive continuing unwelcome attention from disgruntled patients. Read the book and you will find out what to do about it. Not only does Pathe cover the practical and clinical issues but, in addition, she has chapters on how to navigate the criminal justice systems in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

All this and more is covered in 135 pages of text. There is no jargon and nothing is left out. Doctors considering launching into authorship could use her book as a model.

Its price is more than one might anticipate for a relatively short paperback but the contents are worth it.

John EllardPsychiatrist Balmoral Beach, NSW