Maria Ingström

Restrained : a journey through psychosis as a doctor and the search for compassionate care Maria Ingström

What does it feel like to go from being a young doctor-to-be, discussing treatments with colleagues, to suddenly finding yourself strapped down in a psychiatric ward?

In Restrained, physician Maria Ingström offers a rare and unsettling perspective: she has lived on both sides of psychiatry. With honesty and courage, she shares her personal journey through psychosis, coercive treatment, and the long road to recovery.

This is more than a memoir. It is a sharp critique of systemic flaws and an urgent call for change. Ingström shows how mental health care can be transformed by putting dialogue, relationships, and the human being at the center. Drawing on international examples like Finland’s Open Dialogue model, she points to concrete alternatives to restraint and isolation.

Restrained is a book that moves, provokes, and inspires. A story of vulnerability and trauma, but also of resilience, recovery, and hope. Essential reading for healthcare professionals, patients, relatives – and for anyone who believes psychiatry must become more humane.