Part memoir, part history of the treatment of mental illness, author Ron Powers draws attention to the plight of millions suffering from mental illness. He illuminates the factors that have led to the current state of chaos, where many mentally ill are no longer institutionalized, but fill our streets and jails, without access to treatment. Both of his sons were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and the memoir portion of this book is a poignant and heart-wrenching account of their descent into psychosis.

The portions related to science and history read more like a thesis, complete with numerous footnotes, while the memoir came across as a heartfelt picture of the impact of mental illness on his family. It passionately illustrated the depths of pain and suffering while feeling helpless to halt the progression of the disease. This book helps explain what has led to the state of mental illness in America, including scientific, economic, political, and cultural aspects. While Powers has ideas about the need to diagnose early and require treatment, there are no easy answers. He outlines his personal views, and what could be done based on his situation. I thought his call to action was effective, but what needs to be done is a little less clear.

Overall, I found it informative and thought-provoking. At the very least, this book raises awareness of an important issue that needs further dialogue leading to action. Highly recommended to those interested in mental health issues.
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A Booklist Editor’s Choice winner, this dual narrative is a carefully researched history of mental illness & a painful tale of how schizophrenia affected the author’s family.

This was a DNF. I went in expecting an interesting non-fiction book. What I got was mostly a memoir written by a man who spent a great deal of time telling me he didn't want to interfere with the privacy of his family before rambling about their entire lives. A look at other reviews shows the author continues to share his opinion on mental health care and schizophrenia, without apparently asking his surviving son's opinion. He's not an expert in the field or a personal sufferer of mental illness, but a grieving parent. His bias's are clear and evident (and understandable but not made somehow right) and while a sort of insider's view is interesting, he spends a lot of time in the first few chapters discussing things like brain hemispheres which we have now completely debunked. It is one thing to discuss the history of mental health knowledge and another to fail to report that those beliefs have been proven wrong. Presenting them as interesting, potentially accurate takes on mental illness doesn't help anyone. I gave in after 3 chapters. It was an audiobook and it was so difficult to skip over the huge gulfs of slow, boring memoir material that I gave up.

Really thought I could learn something from this non-fiction book; however, I was almost completely wrong. I am quite aware of how many of the mentally ill slip through the cracks. I hoped to learn something about schizophrenia, but into the book about 100 pages and the author is still telling about family vacations when his children were 5. I feel for the author, but he has got to get the point much sooner than he hopefully does! This is going to be a DNF for me. Read 100/384 ( )

There's a moving, important book buried here amid a lot of rambling and background information that doesn't efficiently serve Powers' point. ( )