[Nov 2005]PRESS RELEASES |
MOM SAYS, DAD SAYS, NAT SAYS: OTHERPRESS RELEASEClick Here to Buy 'Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says : Other'For Immediate Release Click Here for PDF version of Entertainment and Mental Health
Where Entertainment and Mental Health Meet: A New Irresistible Series "The Nat Says Series provides busy adults and kids with a better understanding of optimal mental health, how to fortify it and improve it-- all while being entertained." -- Len Duhl, Professor of Public Health at Berkeley & Pioneer of WHO Healthy Cities Project in Europe When one thinks of mental health, many of us still have images of a psychoanalyst sitting behind a depressed patient on a couch, Freud and his formidable theories on the libido, or perhaps even a harried psychiatrist working for an HMO with little other time than to prescribe drugs such as Prozac. We would not associate mental health with Madonna, mobile phones or a night out at the movies. Yet, that is precisely what the author of Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other had in mind when she wrote this first book in her health series on being an "Other" -- someone that doesn't quite fit the mold -- that has just been published by Booklocker. "Today's busy adults and curious kids need to be entertained. They are not going to be found pondering over health pamphlets, working through a stress management program, or reading self help books, unless they already have a life changing problem and are in real pain. By then its often too late. The divorce has happened, the kids are hanging out with the wrong crowd or addicted to drugs, and one's job has become so stressful that you don't sleep well at night," says author and illustrator, Nathalie Ishizuka. "Psychiatry, psychologists and social workers can all do their part in helping us pick up the pieces, but somehow we have to help ourselves before things get that bad." The author, who departed from her work in the field of health, to start an avant garde firm in Paris promoting Warner Music Artists and celebrities on the net and mobile, has returned to bring a twist to positive mental health or the study of optimal adjustment. Rather, than waiting until the pieces fall apart, Ishizuka wants to entertain and educate people before problems arise. Hence the birth of an entertaining illustrated health series, Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other that reads much like the St. Exupery's The Little Prince, but with a different message. The book is about optimal health, what we wished our Mom had told us, what our Dad may not have known, and what our own head and heart might still have difficulty grasping. Unless, of course, your Mom has a 'savoir vivre' that is larger than life, your Dad an internationally renown Harvard trained psychiatrist on health, and you like the author Nat, has spent years trying to integrate both your Mom's heart and your Dad's head. No small task, given that the character Dad (a
penguin disguise for Dr. Yukio Ishizuka) has created a theory on
health and happiness that withstands the demanding criteria put
forth by the American psychologist Maria Jahoda in 1958 on "Current
Concepts of Positive Mental Health." Jahoda set forth the guidelines
to evaluate a model that integrates an understanding of the mind
both in distress and well-being. That criteria produced under the
direction of Dr. Jack R. Ewalt, the former Chairman of the Department
of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, was to set a new path out
for psychiatry. A path that foresaw the future of psychiatry as
the study of health, not merely disease and the classification of
mental illnesses. In the field of mental health, being an OTHER is
a vast category. With the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for
Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) listing over 370 psychiatric mental disorders,
many individuals are labeled an OTHER; someone who is outside the
norm. And although labels, can be sometimes useful for treatment
purposes, or for insurance companies, they are not an ends in itself.
"Nor are they an criteria for building positive health as they
often come with a negative stigma," says Ishizuka. As the author
cleverly points out, "Avoid labels. They constrain, they limit
what you are and can become." This is a must read for people who may feel like
they are taking a path less traveled -- be they busy adults, loving
parents, children, care givers or those diagnosed with a disorder.
Child psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and teachers
will also get a lift from its freshness. Through the surprising
coping strategies in the book, being different, can suddenly become
a formidable stepping stone to health. Nathalie Ishizuka is a Franco-Japanese American author and illustrator of Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other who has spent over 15 years writing about a model of health and happiness. Her innovative interdisciplinary approach integrating the psychology of individuals, organizations, and the nation state has lead her to work with people from many fields and to receive the George A. Plimpton Fellowship for the study of social, economic, and political institutions. -30- Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other, illustrated and written by Nathalie Ishizuka, 60 color pages soft cover, ISBN 1-59113-741-1. $24.95 published by Booklocker 2005, visit www.natsays.com |
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