Average customer rating:
- Long and winding middle of the road writing
- WOW.
- A Painful Reality
- A literary game not played by fair rules
- Couldn't Put It Down......
|
The Double Bind: A Novel
Chris Bohjalian
Manufacturer: Shaye Areheart Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Psychological & Suspense
| Thrillers
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Nineteen Minutes: A Novel
-
A Thousand Splendid Suns
-
Body Surfing: A Novel
-
Water for Elephants: A Novel
-
Whitethorn Woods
ASIN: 1400047463
Release Date: 2007-02-13 |
Amazon.com
Best known for the provocative and powerful novel, Midwives (an Oprah Book Club® Selection), Chris Bohjalian writes beautiful and riveting fiction featuring what the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed "ordinary people in heartbreaking circumstances behaving with grace and dignity." In his new novel, The Double Bind, a literary thriller with references to (and including characters from) The Great Gatsby, Bohjalian takes readers on a haunting journey through one woman's obsession with uncovering a dark secret. We think Bohjalian fans will be thrilled with this compelling and unforgettable read, but just to be sure, we asked bestselling author Jodi Picoult to read The Double Bind and give us her take. Check out her review below. --Daphne Durham
Guest Reviewer: Jodi Picoult
From the provocative and gut-wrenching The Pact, to the brilliant genre-bending The Tenth Circle, to her latest novel about a high school shooting Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult's riveting novels center on family and relationships, and bring to light questions and issues that remain with a reader long after the last page is turned.
I once heard a fellow novelist call writing "successful schizophrenia"--we invent people and worlds that don't exist; but instead of being medicated, we are paid for it. Although countless novels succeed in whisking the reader away on the heels of such fabrications, there are very few that pull the curtain away from the craft, allowing us inside the mind of a working novelist as he combines reality and fantasy. Chris Bohjalian's The Double Bind is not just one of these; it's the finest example I've ever read of a book that tips its hat to both the beauty of the literary creation, as well as the magical act of creating.
Fact and fiction become indistinguishable in The Double Bind: The story centers on Laurel Estabrook, a young social worker and survivor of a near-rape, who stumbles across photographs taken by a formerly homeless client and tries to understand how a man who'd taken snapshots of celebrities in the 50s and 60s might have wound up on the streets. However, an author's note tells us that Bohjalian conceived this book after being shown a batch of old photographs taken by a once-homeless man; and the actual photos of Bob "Soupy" Campbell are peppered throughout the text. In another neat twist, Bohjalian's resurrects details from The Great Gatsby, which become "real" in the context of his own novel--Laurel lives in West Egg; part of her hunt for her photographer's past involves meeting with the descendants of Daisy and Tom Buchanan.
As a writer who counts The Great Gatsby as one of the books that changed her life, this inclusion was both startling and remarkable for me. Who doesn't want one's favorite characters to come to life--even if it's only within the constraints of another fictional work? But Bohjalian chose his text wisely: no discussion of The Great Gatsby is complete without alluding to missed opportunities and unreliable sources--critical elements in Laurel's quest. And therein lies Bohjalian's true double bind: all stories--even the ones we tell ourselves--are subject to our own interpretation, and to the degree we can make others believe them.
The Double Bind may flirt with the classics, but it's not your father's stuffy old tome: it's the sort of book you want to read in one sitting, and it packs a twist at the end that will leave you speechless. It also, worthily, spotlights the cause of homelessness in a way that isn't preachy, but honest and explanatory. Ultimately, what Bohjalian's done is offer his lucky readers another reminder of why he's such an extraordinary author: by creating characters that become so real we lose the distinction between truth and embellishment; by reminding us that the story of any life--whether fictional, functional, or marginal--is one to be savored. --Jodi Picoult
Book Description
Throughout his career, Chris Bohjalian has earned a reputation for writing novels that examine some of the most important issues of our time. With
Midwives, he explored the literal and metaphoric place of birth in our culture. In
The Buffalo Soldier, he introduced us to one of contemporary literature’s most beloved foster children. And in
Before You Know Kindness, he plumbed animal rights, gun control, and what it means to be a parent.
Chris Bohjalian’s riveting fiction keeps us awake deep into the night. As The New York Times has said, “Few writers can manipulate a plot with Bohjalian’s grace and power.” Now he is back with an ambitious new novel that travels between Jay Gatsby’s Long Island and rural New England, between the Roaring Twenties and the twenty-first century.
When college sophomore Laurel Estabrook is attacked while riding her bicycle through Vermont’s back roads, her life is forever changed. Formerly outgoing, Laurel withdraws into her photography and begins to work at a homeless shelter. There she meets Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of photographs that he won’t let anyone see. When Bobbie dies suddenly, Laurel discovers that he was telling the truth: before he was homeless, Bobbie Crocker was a successful photographer who had indeed worked with such legends as Chuck Berry, Robert Frost, and Eartha Kitt.
As Laurel’s fascination with Bobbie’s former life begins to merge into obsession, she becomes convinced that some of his photographs reveal a deeply hidden, dark family secret. Her search for the truth will lead her further from her old life—and into a cat-and-mouse game with pursuers who claim they want to save her.
In this spellbinding literary thriller, rich with complex and compelling characters—including Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan—Chris Bohjalian takes readers on his most intriguing, most haunting, and most unforgettable journey yet.
Customer Reviews:
Long and winding middle of the road writing.......2007-09-29
Author Chris Plot Twist Bohjalian is at it again. As with his breakout novel, Midwives, The Double Bind is filled with twists and turns and things are never what they seem. Due to that fact, little that can be said without spoiling the plot. A young woman who has survived a harrowing ordeal lands a job at a homeless shelter. After being given a box of photographs belonging to a recently deceased client of the place, she tries to find out as much as possible about the man and his family. Although her coworkers, friends and acquaintances believe that she is going overboard in her quest, she is undeterred and doggedly pursues the truth. In a number of places, the reader will likely find him or herself wondering about certain coincidences and unlikelihoods, but if he or she is can just go with it - things will eventually become clear. Clever plotting aside, the book has its problems: it is long, long, long and the writing is not exactly compelling; there are two sections (within the prologue and again in the Chapter 28) that contain profanity and graphically described violence; except for some discussion of the fact that the homeless often suffer from mental illness and Laurel's encounter with a homeless man (during which she throws caution to the wind, telling her companions that she will escort the strange man to the shelter ALONE), the whole "homeless" angle of the story seems pretty sanitized; and anyone unfamiliar with The Great Gatsby is sure to have a tough time of it. The story's highlights can be found by reading the following (if you plan to read it in its entirety, don't read on): the prologue, page 200 (for "the double bind" explained), and chapter twenty-eight through the reader's guide. Best thing about the book - the surprises - worst - the writing. Midwives is a better choice.
WOW........2007-09-27
I am rarely as enthralled with a book as I was this one...couldn't put it down, and I will recommend it to many people! Very different, brilliantly creative, and breathtaking. READ IT.
A Painful Reality.......2007-09-17
No matter how lurid, misunderstood, violent or repugnant the subject, Chris Bohjalian wrests his themes from the daily news, fleshes them out with realistic details and spins a compelling tale that both enchants
and educates the reader. His latest book, The Double Bind, deals with the aftermath of a brutally senseless attack on a compassionate young social worker.
The author aced this one, and I will never again see a young woman pass by on a bicycle without reliving in my mind the horror of a cruel encounter on a bright fall day along a Vermont country lane. The event and the subsequent unfolding of the residual pain are told with
compassion and a surreal weave of reality and fantasy. It's hard to imagine where this talented writer will take us next!
Izzie Hayes, avid Bohjalian fan
A literary game not played by fair rules.......2007-09-17
I have to give Mr. Bohjalian 5 stars for chutzpah. How many authors would so tightly link their own work to one of the American classics of the 20th century--perhaps the Great American Novel itself--forcing any reader to compare Bohjalian to Fitzgerald? I can assure you that, if this work is representative, Mr. Bohjalian is no Fitzgerald; they hardly speak the same language.
But wait, the chutzpah gets even more extreme! It is possible that Mr. Bohjalian has deliberately given us this rambling, slack style--sometimes seemingly deliberately hanging with Spanish-moss-like clumps of unfocused, clicheed phrases that only a nonwriter would dare have appear under his own name--for a literary purpose. Without revealing too much--and the book is all about the series of relevations that progressively emerge--I think I can safely suggest that Mr. Bohjalian may be dropping a (perhaps massive) clue about where the story is heading by writing in such a slack, nonliterary style. Chutzpah indeed to set himself up so close to a master stylist like Fitzgerald just to make himself look like a bad writer to advance his own plot.
Or maybe not. Maybe the book really isn't that coherent. It teems with references to The Great Gatsby on many levels. It invites the reader to hear these references in multiple voices speaking in the primary narrator's voice. But for the life of me, I can't distinguish where one voice starts and another leaves off. Shifts appear to occur in the middle of paragraphs. Or at least, the story can be viewed as coherent only if this is going on. As a reader, I feel like one of the early German scholars of the Bible trying to sort through the distinct voices present in the text and wondering what scribe could have edited these voices together in such a haphazard patchwork. What was the scribe trying to do?! What is the author trying to do here?
I can't be more detailed without revealing key elements of the story. Let me say simply this. I came to the book with great expectations. I actually lived in F. Scott Fitzgerald's dorm room in college and had a classmate who saw himself and his girlfriend as the reincarnations of F. Scott and Zelda. (Sounds like part of some alternative take off on Gatsby, but this one wasn't fiction ;-)). I felt a literary mystery story unfolding through the pages of The Double Bind and my expectations rose. I love a good literary game. But as the revelations unfolded, I couldn't make them hold together. Other readers I have spoken to have had the same reaction. At the end of the day, I can't tell what the author actually intended us to believe happened in his story. More than anything, I felt as though he had not played fairly by any set of rules he had set for the game. Or maybe more mercifully, the game didn't have coherent rules to begin with. Takes Mr. Bohjalian off the hook, but it takes any fun out of the game. I came away frustrated and disappointed.
Couldn't Put It Down.............2007-09-11
"What a ride! _The Double Bind was a "couldn't-put-it-down" book. Now I have to read it again with a different perpsective. I loved the first, and am now looking forward to the second journey with Laurel. Thank you for such a provocative book."
Customer Reviews:
more art than philosophy.......2007-08-19
however, is philosophy not an art? perhaps this question is the most illuminating one with regard to this book. I described it to a friend as "shamanism meets psychoanalysis in a 19th century drawing room." Of course this description is inadequate but it made me laugh. The "rigor" of this book takes place in a different form, in a different plane, from analytic thought. Where one might oversimplify analytic philosophy and call it linear with its pretensions of precision; this sort of philosophy has depth and shading, it has contours; it seems as though the mind of God has gone fractal in this book. Of course it is not perfect, but all philosophy necessarily must fall short of the mark if we are so ambitious as to set the "mark" as "truth." Deleuze and Guattari understand the shortcomings of language as a conveyance of truth, of its inherent incomprehensibility; in reaction to this insight they have decided to have fun, to play within the field of reference and see what comes out. One of the more interesting treatises you will ever read, even if you don't finish. I suppose you could say it is the lunar to the solar pretensions of reason and logic.
Abstractionist Exploitation.......2005-09-28
For all its cleverness, the kind of dodgy, edgy, self-important prose that lures wannabe philosophers into its trap, this book is one incorrect premise after another, one humanocentric argument posing as "ecological" thought on top of another.
Deleuze and Guattari refer to "wolves" that are not wolves, "rhizomes" that have nothing to do with rhizomes. They favor the symbolic half of a metaphor over its physically realizable counterpart to the point at which a rhizome could be anything vaguely multiplicitous and knotty and branchy--at which point it ceases to be a rhizome and becomes what the quasi-philosopher loves: a product to be sold.
Ecology is a science, and not as soft a science as its made out to be by those who haven't lately picked up an ecology textbook or read the history of its development. There's far more fashion to "science studies" than rigor, and D & G fall right into the mode of conflating ecology with other disciplines and methods. Interdisciplinary is fine; undisiciplined isn't. Like Andrew Ross, D & G are dilettanti. They dabble and play and get clever and, in this case, use fundamental natural facts as exploitively as any lab tester, hunter, or junk scientist that science studies likes to indict.
In the chapter on Freud's Wolf-Man, D & G save us from one projected and hyperbolic interpretation of a dream to their own worse one. In correcting Freud for his misuse of both dreams and wolves, they essentialize the species, make assumptions about wolf behavior, and provide a vague replacement for Freud's symbolism of lesser value. Lesser because they fail both to recognize the fairy tale images behind Freud's analysis (the goat/wolf conflation, the tree symbol) and to cite source work backing their declarations about wolves, the real animals they invoke several times in the chapter. This is an abstraction of convenience, and while dabblers in environmentalism from the sidewalk-bound perspective of Theory and Cultural Studies might find it enticing, they should also find it about as corroborated as a high school research paper with a bibliography gleaned from a couple of hours on the internet.
Likewise the "rhizome" chapter, foundational to the book. D & G make ridiculous statements about rivers being "without beginning or ending" about the rhizome being "always intermezzo," and other hyperbolic claims that serve their purpose of using the nonhuman world to fulfill entirely humanocentric claims and spins. A river has a source and a mouth, and the concept of interconnectedness so cherished by those who would use ecology to justify any cobbled amalgam of thoughts they have can, as it does here a thousand times, turn to mere rationalization and exploitation.
An analytical philosopher would indeed find this book to be nonsense, but not because Deleuze and Guattari are pressing the philosophical envelope with new ideas. They cite themselves (!) several times--and not just in references to prior pages that follow a thread of the text. They employ transparently circular logic, arguments spun off of premises that are only premises because D & G repeat them. Fundamental logic and argumentation work--not because they're patriarchally dominating forms of rhetoric that keep us from seeing the world as it is, but because they come from the world as it is. The very structure of argumentation demands corroboration ultimately from the basic laws of nature.
My one star rating of this act of charlatanism isn't because the book is poorly written. It's because the book gives us all the tools we need for an irresponsible, rationalized, finally damaging environmental thought--one posing as some new map of the world, some new ecology. There is no new ecology. There is only the gathering, the accrual of fact, that ensues from our increased understanding of the raw material out of which we hammer our civilizations.
Deleuze and Guattari only know our civilizations, and those not as well as their tremendous egos would assert. They paint nature in their own image, start the cult of Deleuzians, and profer a tempting "philosophy" that ends in the bait and switch typical of current cultural studies. In the end, what has any wolf, any rhizome, any river, gotten out of the grand Deleuzians?
The only reason to read this book is to find out what's happened to the brains of an unfortunately sizeable number of academics. It saddens me to know where the interdisciplinary work of philosophy and ecology could go if it weren't dragging around this dead weight.
The Crowning Achievement Of (Post)Modern French Philosophy.......2005-05-20
That this book is receiving one star, given the title of my review, should surprise no one.
Look, say what you will; I am a classically trained, analytic, Anglophone philosopher with a penchant for clarity and rigor. That is where I stand. If you are looking for a text which purports to be theoretical, and yet is obviously densely literary and aphoristic, perhaps I don't understand what you're on about, and perhaps you don't either.
This book is neither clear nor rigorous. Where it doesn't mutate truly elementary understandings of science (not to say that either Deleuze understands what the difference between science and pseudoscience is), psychology, and economics to suit its incoherent purposes, it avoids any understanding whatsoever.
The philosophical work contained herein is non-starting. That is, it is not philosophy, as it is neither argumentative, interpretive, nor logical. There are no discernible conclusions (which is not to say that there are none in this pig latin dog's dinner, but they probably aren't deduced from premisses ) where there is anything like 'argument' at all.
To say that I'm missing the point, you'd first have to show that such work can have a point. That it violates hard-won conventions of philosophical discourse, which are taken as primitive (I can't tell you how many times the Law of Excluded Middle was violated), is not a victory for this work. It is a setback. That it has not been translated into English, but rather some retarded cousin of English, is perhaps partly to blame for my lack of understanding. I tend only to be able to read natural languages.
But then, again, perhaps my rhizomatic foreshortening (to wit: to SHORTEN is also to LENGTHEN) is in part quasiculpable (that is, retrodogmatically) as a blamematic(viz. contraposto) which tends inter alia to produce (and re-produce, as Malreaux reads Sartre in referential milieus of Darwinian technologies of traffic control) my congnitive disfunctionabilities.
I recommend the work of W.V.O. Quine if you're looking for a 'philosophy of our time,' as one reviewer suggested we must.
Works Well with Techno Music.......2005-01-03
This is a fascinating work whose multidisciplinarity and complexity challenge any library taxonomy: once I saw it filed under psychiatry. All the same, classical analytical thinkers fail to understand "A Thousands Plateaus" in its own terms, irritating conventionally trained intellectuals (and those who vote this review "unhelpful").
In addition to criticizing master narratives (psychoanalysis, Marxism and structuralism), "A Thousand Plateaus" provides a radically different mindframe for conceptualizing the emerging realities of globalization and subjectivity formation. Nomadology and schizoanalysis are new styles for accessing and assessing mobile and metamorphic identities in an age of digital capital and semiotic flows. To wit, Foucault declared that this century is Deleuzian.
Certainly, it is much easier to read commentators. Yet, my favorite way to get into this book is by plugging loud techno trance music on my headphones, reading it as pure Power Poetry, "harnessing its forces" as Deleuze puts it: a war-machine that undermines monolithic thought, opening up multiple possibilities for the renewed experiencing of the self and reality. (Deleuze and Guattari claimed to have had hallucinations while writing the book).
Book translator Brian Massumi suggests that "A Thousand Plateaus" may be better handled like a music album, freely and pragmatically. Deleuze himself continously entices us to create affect, and employ philosophy; not as the cultivation of dead closed concepts, but to foster multiple thinking...
Long live the barbarian nomads of reason!
October 17 2004 - a review.......2004-10-17
I don't normally bother reviewing books. However I had to respond to something another reviewer said:
"you can't read this while listening to music, trust me"
Actually you can but I recommend the music of anti-essentialists, Phoenicia's "Brownout" is an excellent soundtrack to the plateau on the refrain. The text of the book is the opsign of time-images, music, or, rather, sound, of deterritorialisation is the sonsign. Fittingly, the releases from Germany's Mille Plateaux label are really good for reading these works.
I can't recommend this book enough but I will give some advice in your approach:
1. Even though this might seem the most intimidating entry to D&G's thought I suggest it anyway. Compared to "Difference and Repetition" or "The Logic of Sense" this is a walk in the park when it comes to penetrating the prose.
2. Don't expect a book of philosophy where an argument is clearly defined and developed. This is nothing like that. It's a work of "nomad thought", just try and follow what's happening *before* you judge it.
3. Come back to it. Regularly. Your appreciation and engagement will deepen as your knowledge of Deleuze's oeuvre deepens. You won't 'get it' at first but you have to enter his work somewhere. Eventually you'll realise this is a challenge to develop new ontologies, you were never meant to get it. You were and are meant to think it in new directions. After all, that's the basic lesson of the return.
4. Read widely. I really recommend Rodowick's 1997 book "Gilles Deleuze's Time Machine". On the surface Rodowick is working with the cinema books but the cinema books themselves are philosophical works developing Bergson. If you grasp Rodowick's less dense (though just as challenging) argument for deterritorialised thought you'll be on your way. Another area: Nietzsche's concepts of return, the will to power and active/reactive force is crucial. Read Deleuze's Nietzsche book.
5. The geology stuff isn't a metaphor, it's an isomorphism. If nothing else read DeLanda's "Immanence and Transcendence in the Genesis of Forms" in the 1999 book "A Deleuzian Century" (edited by Ian Buchanon).
And last but certainly not least, Deleuze & Guattari's work is playful, enjoy the challenges they set you. You'll never see the world the same way again.
Book Description
This introduction to abnormal psychology is designed to make the material more accessible and inviting to a new generation in a changing world. Noteworthy for its clear and engaging writing style that is accessible to readers, superior pedagogy, many engaging case examples and user-oriented applications, and integration of sociocultural material throughout. The authors adopt an interactionist approach in viewing abnormal behavior in terms of a complex interplay of factors representing psychological, biological, and sociocultural domains.
Features personal accounts spanning a wide range of disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, eating disorders, autism, panic disorder, and other mental health problems. The free CD-ROM offers fifteen new segments from the âSpeaking Outâ series, including interviews with persons who have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, anorexia, bulimia, PTSD, alcoholism, schizophrenia, autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, social phobia, hypochondriasis, and personality disorders. Highlights controversial issues in the field (e.g., Recovered Memory Controversy, EMDR: A Fad or a Find), and applications (e.g., How To Cope with a Panic Attack; Suicide Prevention; Rape Prevention; and Anger Management).
A comprehensive reference for professionals in the psychology and/or medical fields.
Customer Reviews:
Information about product unclear.......2007-01-23
I also received the CRAM101 study guide that just contained definitions for terms. Not useful at all. I should have went with my gut feeling after reading the other reviews and not ordered this.
This is the worst purchase I ever made........2006-11-12
Honestly, the product they sent me wasn't even the textbook I thought it was. Instead, it is the study guide companion to the textbook. I also wasn't the only person this happened to - there was another girl in my class who received the same thing from Amazon. I found it completely useless, since all it really contained were definitions for all the terms used in the book. I wound up using a different site to get this book, and they sent it to me faster, and for a cheaper price.
Shipping was not speedy........2006-11-07
I would have loved this item if I would have gotten it on time. I paid for next day and got it days later.
Good Review.......2005-09-25
The company I used managed to get the book sent to me in a reasonable amount of time. The book was in better condition than advertised, still shrink-wrapped with the CD in it (a highly useful CD at that). I was very pleased with the book overall and highly reccomend it to anyone studying in this field of psychology.
Book Description
This new edition retains the book's engaging and innovative systems approach, integrating the biological, psychological, and social perspectives in one concurrent story. Scientific methods are presented in a clear and non-threatening manner, and are based on the most current research.
Chapter topics include personality disorders, eating disorders, substance use disorders, sexual and gender identity disorders, schizophrenic disorders, mood disorders and suicide, treatment of psychological disorders, and more.
For psychologists, psychiatrists, and professionals in the mental health field.
Book Description
Since its first publication in 1983, Surviving Schizophrenia has become the standard reference book on the disease and has helped thousands of patients, their families and mental health professionals. In clear language, this much–praised and important book describes the nature, causes, symptoms, treatment and course of schizophrenia and also explores living with it from both the patient and the family's point of view. This new, completely updated fifth edition includes the latest research findings on what causes the disease as well as information about the newest drugs for treatment and answers to the questions most often asked by families, consumers and providers.
Customer Reviews:
The Gold Standard for Books on Schizophrenia.......2007-08-23
Torrey is so profoundly accurate in his writings on schizophrenia and manic depression that one can safely ignore authors who ridicule or reject his arguments. He's that good.
Very Misleading book from someone who should know better.......2007-08-08
After reading Dr. Torrey's book on Schizophrenia I found 2 things that for me were very interesting and informative. However, these tidbits had nothing to do with the book itself, which I found to be a propaganda filled unscientific work. Now I'm sure that this statement has already filled with rage the hearts of the many NAMI sponsored parents that have praised this book to no end. Furthermore, It is probably safe to say that I have established myself as an anti-psychiatrist and/or scientologist. The latter charge I wholeheartedly deny but the former I am inclined to accept only because no evidence has persuaded me otherwise. I actually read this book and I am planning on reading others like it because I wanted a more balanced perspective of schizophrenia and the mental health field. This book unfortunately only reinforced my views that I had held on the subject. Mainly, that there is no convincing evidence to support that schizophrenia is a biologically based brain disease that is best treated by psychiatrists through involuntary means. Furthermore, there exists a great deal of scientific research that stands in direct contrast to this claim. Ah but I digress.
The first thing that caught my attention about this book is in appendix A when Dr. Torrey lists some of the best and worst books on the subject. Due to my interest in the field of psychology I had read a good proportion of the "worst books". When I noticed that Dr. Torrey felt so strongly that these books were terrible I was interested to see if he had any evidence to refute the many claims made by the authors of these books.. Unfortunately Dr. Torrey doesn't even address the hundreds of studies that stand in direct contrast to his and other biological psychiatrists theories on the subject.
Regardless of the quality of these books in general, Dr. Torrey either does not or cannot provide evidence to show these claims of these authors to be inaccurate. I shall only list these books and provide a general theme as the length of this review has already made it unlikely that many people will read it. However, if someone were to read any of the following books it will become obvious why Torrey has tried to discredit them. In the books How to Become a Schizophrenic, Models of Madness, and Toxic Psychiatry, the authors present a damning critique of all that Dr. Torrey and those like him stand for. They even address and lay bare research that supposedly proves that Schizophrenia is a brain disease. These books as well Community Mental Health and Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia also provide viable and humane alternatives to individuals diagnosed as Schizophrenic. The many psychosocial interventions listed in these books are supported by research, do not require medication as a key to recovery, and are for all intents and purposes are non-coercive. Dr. Torrey doesn't criticize or acknowledge the existence of any of these well designed and effective interventions for people diagnosed with schizophrenia. Instead he dances around the issue. He mentions a few extremely biased studies that have not shown psychotherapy to be effective. He then boldly encourages parents and other well wishers to sue mental health professionals that engage in insight based psychotherapy with schizophrenics.
The second thing I found interesting about Dr. Torrey's book is that many of things that he stands for are in direct contrast to what he believed back in 1974 when he published The Death of Psychiatry. He still had his viral theory back then but aside from that it would be hard to distinguish him from Thomas Szasz. Torrey makes no reference to why he has changed his tune towards involuntary treatment, the medical model, Szasz, and a variety of other pertinent issues. While I do not wish to make unfounded assumptions about Dr. Torrey I find it hard to believe that the nearly unlimited research funds bestowed upon him and the hoards of admirers from NAMI had nothing to do with his reversal of opinion. There can be no doubt that Dr. Torrey is an intelligent person who has a lot of good things to say on a variety of issues; he proved that with The Death of Psychiatry. However, his complete disregard for any evidence that fails to support his theories is not only unscientific but unethical. The consequences of the cruel oppressive methods he advocates for behind the thin veneer of care and compassion are devastating to those so unfortunate to be diagnosed as schizophrenic. Worse still is the influence that his ideas have on policy makers and our society in general. It allows people who have committed no crime to be forcibly drugged, committed against their will, and prevented from being employed by a number of organizations, and that isn't even the worst of it. If you plan on reading this book please take it with a grain of salt and read other sources on the subject that are not on his "best" list.
outstanding.......2007-03-23
This book is outstanding and a must read for anyone with a family member afflicted by this terrible illness. This book gives great insight and understanding into this mysterious affliction
A human look at personally debilitating disease.......2007-02-27
The difficulty with a lot of academic work is that it doesn't get to the root of the problem of living with a disease. This book has a wealth of critical information, not just about the medical developments and scientific understanding of mental illness, not just schitzophrenia, but touches on many different organic, chemical imbalances in the brain. More importantly, it talks about the weaknesses in the U.S. medical and welfare systems that present more difficult challenges for people who have physical or chemical imperfects in the body's most critical organ. It presents possible solutions to the difficulties of getting a solid diagnosis and correct treatment.
This is a great book for anyone interested in how the body and brain works. It is written in remarkably simple language, but covers everything from scientific explanations, research and development to social and political obstacles.
This should be a university text book for people studying psychology or psychiatry. If it were, the patients might receive better treatment.
Very Educational .......2007-01-04
This book is a must for families and individuals with schizophrenia. I encourage the families to read it... I am reading it and it's been a wealth of knowledge.
Average customer rating:
|
Social Skills Training for Schizophrenia, Second Edition: A Step-by-Step Guide
Alan S. Bellack ,
Kim T. Mueser ,
Susan Gingerich , and
Julie Agresta
Manufacturer: The Guilford Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Schizophrenia
| Mental Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mental Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Interpersonal Relations
| Relationships
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Self-Help
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Clinical Psychology
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Pathologies
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Group
| Movements
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Social Services & Welfare
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychiatry
| Specialties
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychiatry
| Internal Medicine
| Medicine
| Medical
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
All Amazon Upgrade
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Health, Mind & Body
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Medicine
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Professional & Technical
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Medicine
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Professional
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Cognitive Therapy of Schizophrenia (Guides to Individualized Evidence-Based Treatment)
-
The Severe and Persistent Mental Illness Treatment Planner
-
The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia: Helping Your Loved One Get the Most Out of Life
-
Cognitive Therapy for Delusions, Voices and Paranoia (Wiley Series in Clinical Psychology)
-
Getting Your Life Back Together When You Have Schizophrenia
ASIN: 157230846X |
Book Description
This popular manual presents an empirically tested format and ready-made curricula for skills training groups in a range of settings. Part I takes therapists and counselors step by step through assessing clients' existing skills, teaching new skills, and managing common treatment challenges. Part II comprises over 60 ready-to-photocopy skill sheets. Each sheet--essentially a complete lesson plan--explains the rationale for the skill at hand, breaks it down into smaller steps, suggests role-play scenarios, and highlights special considerations. Of special value for practitioners, the 8 1/2" x 11" format makes it easy to reproduce and use the practical materials in the book.
Average customer rating:
- "Mad in America" by Robert Whitaker
- Wish some reviewers would read more carefully
- Now I'm Mad!
- Read this book and share it with someone
- If the author only knew what it means to have a sick family member
|
Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill
Robert Whitaker
Manufacturer: Perseus Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Schizophrenia
| Mental Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mental Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Mental Illness
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Social Services & Welfare
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Special Topics
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychiatry
| Specialties
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Health Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Nonfiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Science Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital
-
Madness: A Brief History
-
Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry"
-
Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications
-
The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness (Penguin Psychology)
ASIN: 0738203858
Release Date: 2001-12-24 |
Amazon.com
Hot on the heels of an optimistic film about Nobelist John Nash's schizophrenic journey comes medical journalist Robert Whitaker's disturbing exposé of the cruel and corrupt business of treating mental illness in America. Mad in America begins by surveying three centuries of mental health treatments to discover why positive outcomes for schizophrenics in the U.S. for the last 25 years have decreased--making them lower than those in developing countries. Whitaker asks, "Why should living in a country with such rich resources and advanced medical treatments for disorders of every kind, be so toxic to those who are severely mentally ill?"
One of Whitaker's answers draws upon the historic and current assumptions of a physical cause for schizophrenia. This resulted in cruel and unusual physical treatments--from ice-water immersion and bloodletting to the more contemporary electroshock, lobotomy, and drug therapies with dangerous side effects. This physical cause model leads to Whitaker's more provocative explanation: that mental illness has become a profit center. He offers disturbing details about how good business for drug companies makes for bad medicine in treating schizophrenia. From drug companies skewing their studies and patient/subjects kept in the dark about experiments to the cozy relationship between the American Psychiatric Association and drug companies, Whitaker underlines the mistreatment of the mentally ill. This courageous and compelling book succeeds as both a history of our attitudes toward mental illness and a manifesto for changing them. --Barbara Mackoff
Book Description
A riveting social and medical history of madness in America, from the 17th century to today.
In Mad in America, medical journalist Robert Whitaker reveals an astounding truth: Schizophrenics in the United States fare worse than those in poor countries, and quite possibly worse than asylum patients did in the early nineteenth century. Indeed, Whitaker argues, modern treatments for the severely mentally ill are just old medicine in new bottles and we as a society are deluded about their efficacy. Tracing over three centuries of "cures" for madness, Whitaker shows how medical therapies-from "spinning" or "chilling" patients in colonial times to more modern methods of electroshock, lobotomy, and drugs-have been used to silence patients and dull their minds, deepening their suffering and impairing their hope of recovery. Based on exhaustive research culled from old patient medical records, historical accounts, and government documents, this haunting book raises important questions about our obligations to the mad, what it means to be "insane," and what we value most about the human mind.
Customer Reviews:
"Mad in America" by Robert Whitaker.......2007-09-30
"Mad in America" is a book that should be read by all mental health providers. It chronicles the history of the treatment of mental illness for the last 100 years. It details the period in the early 1800s called "Moral Treatment" when patients were treated with compassion and respect, and, for the most part, recovered. However, neuroleptics intervented, and we now have a much poorer outcome for such serious mental illnesses as schizophrenia. Actually, Third World countries, where neuroleptics are used less frequently have a better outcome.
Soteria House in California in the 70s and 80s implemented this 'moral treatment' and had wonderful results as Mr. Whitaker points out. However, funding ran out. (Pharmaceutical companies, of course, would not sponsor such a concept.) However, there is a Soteria-Alaska soon to open in Anchorage (early 2008) that replicates Loren Mosher's Soteria House in California. It behooves anyone interested in the treatment of mental illness (and that should encompass most of America) to not only learn about Soteria-Alaska, but to do their part to help it succeed.
Read this book!
M. Weiss
Wish some reviewers would read more carefully.......2007-09-14
I'm amazed at the reviews here that have the book saying things it flat-out doesn't say: that "mental illnesses are not diseases," "mental disorders are not biological in nature," "we are no better off in understanding and treating mental illness than we were in the 1700s" and "the book offers no alternatives" to psychopharmaceutical drugs with poor track records and destructive side effects. Actually it's very pointed about the most effective known alternative: provide for the patient an environment of safety, caring, respect and simple day-to-day structure and let the brain's natural healing process do the rest.
That we haven't been doing this all along can be attributed to the enormous stigma attached to mental illness in this culture, which is something I wish the book had said more about. Few schizophrenics are dangerous, but because of our attitude of horror and disgust, people who can treat them with caring and respect are hard to find. Also barely mentioned is the abuse of the mental health system by families wanting to get rid of socially nonconforming relatives. It's only been ten years since teenage boys and even men in their twenties were being locked in the bin for "gender-inappropriate behavior" in the South and only fifty since white middle-class girls were getting sent there for showing romantic and/or sexual interest in men of color.
There are also reviews urging readers to look to mainstream scientific literature for the truth when the book's point is that the research done in this field is corrupted from top to bottom, not only by pharmaceutical money but by the desire of mental health professionals to be seen (and to see themselves) as scientific and medical rather than as what they are: a profession of janitors assigned to sweep out of sight those people we find disruptively messy. This accusation may be true or false - I'm certainly in no position to plunge into the raw source material and find the truth - but to ignore it is to misrepresent the book.
Now I'm Mad!.......2007-04-27
"Mad in America" is a riveting read. Whitaker has put together a comprehensive, insightful history of the "treatments" that have been wrought upon the mentally ill. My attitude towards medicine and science has been forever changed as as consequence of reading this book. Read it. It will open your mind.
Read this book and share it with someone.......2007-02-13
This book will shock the sensibilities of those whose knowledge of mental illness has been constrained by media sound bites, folk wisdom, and the rhetoric of many "experts" in the field.
Whitaker first gives a concise history of mental illness, it's social context, and treatment paradigms over the past 150 years. This portion of the book is not just a collection of dry facts, anecdotes, and horror stories.
Somewhere towards the end of the book the reader will realize what is being done today is in fact a continuation of what has been done in the past. Certainly newer technology plays a role, but basically it's still "same old-same old".
It is well to revisit history. There is a close parallel between the somewhat bizarre treatments of the late nineteenth century and what is being done pharmaceutically today. The reader may be astounded to discover the oldtimers had far better outcomes than we have in the modern world.
Equally astounding to some readers might be the question of recovery. Can a person recover completely from such a dire diagnosis as schizophrenia? Haven't the "experts" told us for years such a thing is impossible?
Well, the "experts" are wrong. The World Health Organization conducted massive long-term studies comparing outcomes of third world countries such as India with that of the developed countries. It turns out one would have a far better chance
of recovering fully and leading a normal life on the streets of New Delhi than on the streets of Scarsdale, NY. Far better.
Now here is the key question. Are these nations doing something right, or have we done something horribly wrong? The reader must make up his own mind on this.
This book is not just a "keeper". It is a book to read, reread, and shared with someone who needs it's powerful message.
Vince Boehm, Wilmington, DE
If the author only knew what it means to have a sick family member.......2006-09-21
As a psychiatrist and person with mentally ill family members, I can only bemoan all of the misinformation contained in this book. The truth is that many of the mentally ill in America do not get the treatment they need precisely because they believe the things said in this book, on tv, etc. As someone who has lived outside of the US and in the developing world, I can tell you that their mental health treatment pales compared to what is available in the United States and is much more primitive and coercive. Although it is true that many psychiatric medications have serious side effects, the consequences of living with symptoms of a serious mental illness can only convince you of how devastating that can be to both the ill person and his or her family. Furthermore, as someone who is also experienced in administering ECT, I can personally attest to the wonderful success rate of this treatment for persons with severe depression who have failed all alternatives and who would rather be dead than live out their lives. (And many, unfortunately, do decide on death as a last resort).
As far as lobotomies, ice baths, and forced stays in hospitals or other facilities, these are things of the past in the United States. In fact, one of the biggest problems I face in my practice is the extreme difficulty I have in placing someone in the hospital when they actually need a brief stay (typical stays are 5-7 days) because of a lack of psychiatric beds ( more than 90% of psychiatric beds were eliminated from American hospitals in the last 15 years as a cost-cutting measure). The other problems faced by modern psychiatry still includes stigmatisation of the mentally ill and then all the more mundane issues such as needs for help with housing, employment, and job development. But I bet you wouldn't find the author writing a book about that.
Book Description
An early work by the author of the bestselling Love's Executioner and the pseudonymous patient that he treated. "A riveting story of people whose strengths and weaknesses are mutually shared."--Alex Comfort
Customer Reviews:
A real patient/therapist encounter.......2007-07-27
What I love about this book is that it takes you into an unspoken territory of patient and therapist. In the same light as a photojournalist goes behind the scenes to capture events; We capture the inside life of both patient and therapist in a moving and human experience. In exchange for money, Dr. Yalom agrees to see Ginny on the basis that they will each write honest and open reports of each session, so he can create this book. We get an inside look into the passion and desire of a therapsit in his faciliatation of change, as well as, a deep look at a struggling patient admitting to her defenses, emotions, and maladaptive behaviors. A wonderful insight into the blossoming of a relationship that will change both therapist and patient. I highly recommend for anyone who is interested in the field of psychology.
Not quite as interesting as I expected.......2007-05-30
As I am not a student of psychology and not a therapist I read Yalom's books from a layman's point of view, as I find stories of personal development and change very interesting. However, I found this particular book to be somewhat tiresome and I must admit I got a bit bored as I longed for Ginny's process to move on. I guess that reading such detailed descriptions of each session was finally not as exciting as expected. I personally prefer to read the general story of a patient in Yalom's other books with tales of psychotherapy.
Making Sense of the Therapeutic Relationship.......2006-07-24
This is a very courageous book about a very courageous project. It touched me deeply. Brief entries from a master therapist and a writer patient in which each describes what happened for them in each session over a year or so personalize the therapeutic process. One can read a half dozen self help books about therapy and never come as near to understanding the meaning of the therapeutic relationship as well as in this book. While this is not Yalom's best book in literary terms - he was clearly still thinking about being a writer rather than being one - his willingness to expose his own feelings, needs and strategy as a man and a therapist to both the patient (who got to read his entries periodically) and reader is enriching. The book is a good exposition of Yalom's thesis that therapy is ultimately and primarily about the relationship between patient and therapist in which what goes on in the 45 minute hour is the most important element in healing.
Life...Or Something Like It.......2005-09-07
This is one of those books I couldn't wait to run back to. In those free moments between dishes and the bank, and the relaxed air of bedtime, I reveled in anticipation, because this book is like a talk with my best friend. Maybe better. Candor, humor and delightful poetic insights ramble through the hills and valleys of this therapeutic reality fest. I came away with a new sense of myself and the possibilities of my life. I will miss Dr. Yalom and Ginny. If you are looking for Mary Higgins Clark you're in the wrong place. If you're looking for a friend you don't want to let go, this is your lucky day.
not the best yalom has to offer..........2001-01-11
this was his book i was most excited to read, and while i think the concept is great, i don't think it really worked. the accounts were often long-winded and dull, and when there were little gems within that made it worth wading through, they were often hidden amidst pages of muck. i still think the idea behind the book is strong and could work, however, and i admire yalom for trying, but at the same time i wonder if it's not somewhat unethical to reveal so much to a patient about the therapist's feelings, and also to give her free therapy in exchange for writing for him - like, is it a conflict of interest on his part, and therefore countertherapeutic? also, the book doesn't really say if she got better in the long-term. i'm not so sure... still glad i read the book, but didn't honestly feel i got too much out of it. many of his other books are head and shoulders above this one...
Book Description
" A brilliantly documented chronicle of young woman's long struggle with schizophrenia."
-- Willard Gaylin, The New Republic
"Sylvia Frumkin," highly intelligent young girl, became a schizophrenic in her late teens and spent most of the next seventeen years in anti out of mental institutions. Susan Sheehan, a talented reporter followed "Sylvia" for almost a year talking with and observing her listening to her monologues, sitting in on consultations with doctors, even for a period sleeping in the bed next to her in a mental hospital.
"Susan Sheehan has committed an extraordinary act of journalism....She brings relentless intelligent attention to bear on a particular case, a journalistic practice that almost always results in new and disturbing insights into those mindless generalities and prejudice and certitudes we tend to carry around with us." -- Meg Greenfield, front page Washington Post Book World
"Sheehan is tenacious, observant and unsentimental. The history of a single patient leads us into a maze of understaffed institutions, bureaucratic fumbling, trial-and-error treatment and familial incomprehension. Though Sheehan keeps herself invisible, her sympathy is palpable."
-- Walter Clemons, Newsweek
By the author of Lift for Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair
Customer Reviews:
An exceptional piece of investigative journalism that is potently affective........2007-07-23
If the investigative reporter Nellie Bly were still alive, she probably would have declared Susan Sheehan to be her comrade-in-arms, journalistically speaking, at least, for so eye-opening is this book, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1983 in the nonfiction category, that one can't help but somehow feel indirectly involved in this true story in regards to time, place and manner.
By chronicling the schizophrenic oddesy of a single patient, "Sylvia Frumkin", a pseudonym, Susan Sheehan has performed an intimate piece of extraordinary journalism, whereby she brings the reader into the frightening and oftentimes misunderstood world of those possessed by mental illness. With compassionate, intellectual and keen, almost anthropological observation, Sheehan weaves through the blurred and confusing healthcare bureaucracy which "Sylvia Frumkin" and her family incrementally find themselves trying to navigate. Coupled with psychiatric doctors who seem tartly bent on competing against each other in regards to what drug perscriptions are best (and there is a flurry of them), a frazzled family who is so thinly glued together that a feather could crack them apart and "Sylvia Frumkin" herself, whose fragile mental health goes up and down faster than a blinking eye, a reader would want to toss the book aside simply because of the consistent up and down emotional tolls that are flatly patterned in each passing chapter. Yet, as each chapter occurs, it also provides a clean slate and or a new beginning where the illness can be kept at bay and "Sylvia Frumkin" can finally have the good normal life that she deserves. However, it is the rare bouts of normalcy that are fleeting and therein is where the loss of hope and frustration lie. It is that very fleetingness that is so expertly conveyed in, Is There No Place On Earth For Me?
Sheehan's book is one of those rare type of books, not simply because of its high journalistic caliber, but because it is one of those works that can actually bring about good, positive change in a very flawed system, and if a system, governmentally, medically and administratively speaking ever needed change, Creedmore Hospital and those of a similar ilk, definitely required serious correction. Sheehan's book was an eye-opening and engrossing read, amd one can only gravely echo Sheehan's own words in the afterword: "I want there to be a decent place for "Sylvia Frumkin"...and for the many thousands of other people like her."
Insightful and Well Written.......2007-01-09
Sheehan gives an objective and interesting view of schizophrenia and institutionalization. Her writing is funny and engaging.
The Revolving Door of Schizophrenia.......2005-05-01
Reading this book is like watching a train wreck in progress. You can't take your eyes off of it because you want to know how it all works out. When I was putting together a course on psychology in literature a friend gave me this book but made me promise to return it because it was a favorite of hers. After reading it, I can understand why. The author does a fantastic (although disturbing) job of describing the life of a woman with schizophrenia while also discussing the impact that the woman's illness has on her family. While reading the book the reader often begins to feel the anxiety and frustration experienced by Sylvia, a woman with schizophrenia, and her family, and can see in their mind's eye how the disease unfolds and engulfs their lives.
This is a great text for a student of psychology who is interested in descriptions of the disease and also of historical (1970s) views of the mental health system. It would also be helpful for the family members of a person diagnosed with schizophrenia to read so that they can have a greater understanding of the life of a person affected by the disorder.
nicely researched.......2001-12-30
but having read it just this year, it seems a little outdated. I would recommend this book as an introduction to the subject of mental illness, institutionalization etc., but if you know a little more on the subject, skip the book and read something else.
True, intimate, and slow.......2001-06-24
I think this book shows the reality of liveing with schizophrenia and the feeling that there is no place for you. This book takes you through relaspe and healing periods with the main women character. It also shows the failures in our system. I think the book gets a little slow at points, it is a book you can definately put down, but it does do justice to teaching and learning about life with schizophrenia.
Average customer rating:
- Does Anyone Have an Update on Lori?
- Powerful, Uplifting (and sometimes triggering) Account Of Schizophrenia
- Inside Their Mind - Distinguishing Teen Behavior from Psychological Torment
- Excellent!
- The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness
|
The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness
Lori Schiller , and
Amanda Bennett
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Schizophrenia
| Mental Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Self-Help
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Mental Illness
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Pathologies
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychiatry
| Specialties
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Day the Voices Stopped: A Schizophrenic's Journey from Madness to Hope
-
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
-
Recovered, Not Cured: A Journey Through Schizophrenia
-
Is There No Place on Earth for Me?
-
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Consumers, and Providers (4th Edition)
ASIN: 0446671339 |
Customer Reviews:
Does Anyone Have an Update on Lori?.......2007-09-25
I loved this book's depiction of mental illness and have re-read it several times. I am going to push a question that has been alluded to in past reviews. This book was published 11 years ago. Does anyone have any updates as to how Lori has been doing since then? Thank you very much.
Powerful, Uplifting (and sometimes triggering) Account Of Schizophrenia.......2007-09-23
The Quiet Room is a powerful account of a woman lost in her illness of schizophrenia. I was amazed at how the author, Lori, hid her hallucinations from people for so long before getting treatment. I found myself angry at her parents for denying her illness for so long and delaying treatment which she very much needed years before it was received.
It's also amazing that Lori made it through her experience of schizophrenia and was able to tell her story. During the worst of her illness, she was extremely suicidal at times and thought nothing of it (for example, playing a game of crossing the street again and again with her eyes closed and walkman blaring so she couldn't hear the cars). She could have easily died at those times and not come through to tell her story.
This book was very well written and made me feel for Lori. I couldn't put this down once I started. Although, I did give it a five star review and found it to be one of the most interesting books I've read, I don't necessarily recommend it to everyone.
At times this book was too well written, too many details and caused parts of the book to be triggering for me. I'm not schizophrenic (never have been), but I've been in hospitals for depression and other things. Lori's details of the "quiet room" (seclusion in the hospitals) and what happened to her when she was out of control in the hospitals was disturbing to me, as I've been in different "quiet rooms" in hospitals and I found myself remembering my own experiences and getting upset. Just because this was triggering for me, doesn't mean it will be for others. I'm just saying, you've been warned.
As triggering as this book was, it remains a five star for me. It was gripping, intense, real --just the way a book should be-- and I loved it. I liked the way the story was told through family members as well. It helps the reader see the perspectives of those who loved Lori. It shows how her illness affected others.
Overall, The Quiet Room is a sad book. But it's inspiring and uplifting at the end. If Lori can make it through the horrors of schizophrenia, we can make it through our day-to-day lives of work, school, and dilemmas. This book gave me hope.
Inside Their Mind - Distinguishing Teen Behavior from Psychological Torment.......2007-04-23
This book has changed my life. I am 40 years old. My mother is schizophrenic and my teenage daughter is now a hereditary statistic as she is also stricken with this terrible disease. I have always been the "informed" consumer and research everything that affects my life. Before my daughter began experiencing early onset of schizophrenia, I had dealt with my mother's illness extensively later in her life. I was with her during a psychotic break. I had the gut wrenching experience of processing a Baker Act through the courts to hospitalize her against her will. I engaged in productive and intelligent consultations with her medical providers. I thought I had this disease understood. I thought I knew...
The most unique and enlightening element of this biography is that the biographer began her life similar to my daughter's. Straight A student, gifted, very beautiful, popular, social, supportive & loving parents and an achiever in every way. So WHY does someone who has so much going for her sink so low? HOW can teachers, parents, siblings, friends distinguish symptoms of mental illness from common teen behavior and drama?
It is so easy to rely too heavily on the amazing new drugs that are currently available. We can easily, mistakenly feel a false sense of understanding and security. There is no cure for schizophrenia. There is no ONE pill that fixes ALL. There are a myriad of symptoms. There are hundreds of medications with hundreds of side affects. This book has given more insight than I could have ever dreamed in sorting all this out. After reading this book, my daughter and I are a team now. I really do understand. She is not just a badly behaved teen. She trusts me and I trust her.
She is only 14. She hears voices. They scream at her! She is being watched. She is in fear for her life.
We are in this together now with my having a clue - hearing her - perhaps for this first time.
Excellent!.......2007-03-09
I usually don't read books, but I was forced to read this one for an Abnormal Psychology class. This book kept me interested from beginning to end. It gave me a better understanding of schizophrenia. A must read for book readers.
The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness .......2007-01-10
A must read if you work in the Mental Health field or have family members with a mental illness.
Books:
- The Far Side Gallery 2007 Off The Wall Page-a-Day Calendar
- The Good housekeeping illustrated encyclopedia of gardening
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- The New American Story
- The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy (National Book Award for Young People's Literature (Awards))
- The Road to Civil War (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four)
- The Ruby in the Smoke (Sally Lockhart Trilogy, Book 1)
- The Secret
- The Unusual Suspect: My Calling to the New Hardcore Movement of Faith
- The Urban Treasure Hunter: A Practical Handbook for Beginners
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Old Man and The Sea
- She Went All the Way
- Never Too Late: A Novel
- More Than Money: True Stories of People Who Learned Life's Ultimate Lesson
- Peanuts: A Golden Celebration: The Art and the Story of the World's Best-Loved Comic Strip
- Pattern Classification
- Surprise Endings/Island Dreamer/A Heart Full of Hope
- The Man Who Ran the Moon: James E. Webb, NASA, and the Secret History of Project Apollo
- Professionals' Guide to Commercial Property Development
- Will You Walk A Little Faster
