Dr Robert Crawford was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He qualified in medicine at Edinburgh University in 1965 with the intention of specialising as a psychiatrist. Becoming a psychiatrist in 1972, he then found the specialty as practised by orthodox psychiatrists too restrictive and insufficiently compassionate. Leaving psychiatry, he went into General Practice as the doctor serving Hanmer Springs in the South Island of New Zealand. Here he discovered compassionate therapy at Queen Mary Hospital, originaly built for treating returned soldiers from World War I but now running a specialised programme for the treatment of addictions. This book tells the story of the further development of that programme over the 1970s and 80s and describes what therapies were available to patients affected by addictions. Queen Mary Hospital was closed in 2004. The good that came from it is still represented in many people throughout New Zealand and its loss is strongly felt.
