I couldn’t be more excited about J. Peters new book being published in e-book format titled Wales Middle School. After getting a first read of this new edition to the J. Peters series, the entire golden thread throughout the series makes even more sense. While this is not a book that is very clinical in nature, like Wales High School: First Diagnosis, and University on Watch: Crisis in the Academy, the plot takes place on a school setting in Jacques hometown in Wales .
In Wales, Jacques Peters is living a privileged life as a middle-class pre-adolescent in wealthy suburbia outside the big city. The book, if put into the clinical picture of entire series, can best be described as a prodromal snapshot of Jacques years before the onset of a major mental health disorder and formal psychotic break. The early sub clinical symptoms manifested in this book and experienced by Jacques are couched in flair-ups of what might seem like issues with early personality development. This calls into question the relevance of screening for and identifying predictive and contributing factors and their importance around the genesis of mental health disorders later on in life.
This is another very raw and transparent memoir. J. Peters definitely gallops to the edge of self-disclosure while revealing the circumstances around Jacques earlier education. In doing so, the issues interfering with him receiving any sort of early intervention before tumbling out into misbehaviour and affective disorder in high school are revealed and made visible to the reader. The rawness comes off as viscerally chilling, at times cruel, and extremely obnoxious. Clearly, Jacques academic airs put on during the crisis in the academy when he was in college have roots harkening back to his middle school years in which taunting, and bullying were on the rise in Wales.
According to the book’s preface, this story was meant to help others who may have had similar experiences in Middle School recognise early signs of trouble ahead. Wales
Middle School does more than first meets the reader’s eye. Though maybe not J. Peters’ initial intention, the story also provides clarity and understanding for others who may not fully recognise the challenges facing a preteen during the years of primary education. There are many raised in this book, from bullying to learning social queues, and socialisation practice which is critical at this stage of development for healthy pro social interactions later on in adolescence.
The book follows a pre-adolescent Jacques Peters climbing the ranks at Wales High School. The backdrop of Jacques education is his trials and tribulations raising the bar of his social status in Wales. This ladder climbing or as Jacques puts in the book, a social intervention, we get a real understanding of why and how the crisis in the academy was so deep and Jacques behavior so cuttings so deep into the heart of university affairs. After reading Wales Middle School, I would argue Jacques adult influences in the book and their inactivity at times, especially when it came to his guidance department, paved the way for the upstart and rhetoric activist so iconic in University on Watch.
Without question, I recommend reading this new edition to the J. Peters series. It is available in e-book format through AuthorHouse.
Dennis Relojo-Howell is the managing director of Psychreg. He interviews people within psychology, mental health, and well-being on his YouTube channel, The DRH Show.
