"My Madness Saved Me"
"My Madness Saved Me"Thomas Szasz is a name synonymous with critique of psychiatry. From the time of his 1960 publication "The Myth of Mental Illness" Szasz has mai…
49 Up
49 UpWatching Michael Apted's "Up" series is an intensely personal experience for those who have watched them for a few decades, or for those who ha…
A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful MindMetapsychology has already published a review of Sylvia Nassar's A Beautiful Mind (April 2002). The audiobook version read by Anna Field's is unabridged, and lasts over 20 hours on thirteen tapes. The book tells the story of how Nash grew up to be a famo…
A Book of Reasons
A Book of ReasonsApproaching a book review, I read the 'opinions' quoted in the cover blurb. They should give some idea of just what the author is attempting to communic…
A Can of Madness
A Can of MadnessThis book is either 'Britain's Answer to Prozac Nation' as it describes itself in an advertising blurb or it is a self-indulgent rant. Perhaps it is both…
A Good Enough Daughter
A Good Enough DaughterAlix Kates Shulman begins her autobiographical trek by reminding the reader that of all the travels we make in life, the most important journey we ever make…
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering GeniusThe title is a joke, OK? The author, David Eggers, in the lengthy pre-beginning section of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, tells us out…
Read the full review of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
A Life Shaken
A Life ShakenA Life Shaken: My Encounter with Parkinson's Disease by Joel Havemann is an excellent and comprehensive introduction to one of the most disabling…
A Little Pregnant
A Little PregnantMany of us know, or think we know, a thing or two about infertility. Perhaps we have known someone who has experienced infertility, or read about it…
A Message from Jakie
A Message from JakieWhen I read the back cover of this book I was, I must admit, somewhat apprehensive; after all the major premise of the book is a man's conversations with…
A Slant of Sun
A Slant of SunKephart writes a heart-warming story about the trials her son went through growing up as an autistic child. She begins the books in the hospital, as they br…
A Special Education
A Special EducationA Special Education is a mother's emotionally poignant story of her daughter's learning differences. The mother, Dana Buchman, is…
A Tribe Apart
A Tribe ApartPatricia Hersch spent several years of the early 1990s talking with many middle and high school students in her hometown of Reston, Virginia, getting to…
AEIOU
AEIOUAny Easy Intimacy is a memoir of a relationship in graphic novel/comic form. Jeff is an artist in his twenties who works in a video store who mee…
Agents in My Brain
Agents in My BrainFirst person accounts of mental illness can be fascinating and enlightening. At what point does one cease to be 'normal' -- i.e. fail to conform socially…
All Seasons Pass
All Seasons PassThis small book is an unusual work. It starts out with a tale of a mystical experience Manning had during a fever. Sophia is a figure in the Old Testamen…
An Unquiet Mind
An Unquiet MindAlthough Jamison has written several books, this memoir remains her best. She tells the story of her life: her focus is on her struggle with manic depressio…
Angela's Ashes
Angela's AshesI sometimes wonder why books are purchased. Is it in order to be informed? Or to be entertained? Or to be given an insight into aspects of the world that hi…
Angelhead
AngelheadThere are a large and increasing number of personal accounts of schizophrenia, either by schizophrenics themselves or their families and friends and…
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
Another Bullshit Night in Suck CityDon't let the harsh title fool you; this memoir is truly a work of art. Nick Flynn's writing style is beautifully poetic, insightful and creative. His…
As I Live and Breathe
As I Live and BreatheIn her autobiographical account of life, death, sickness, and healing -- Jamie Weisman speaks with a narrative voice that starkly emphasizes the fundamen…
At Home in the Heart of Appalachia
At Home in the Heart of AppalachiaJohn O'Brien's book At Home in the Heart of Appalachia, succeeds at the emotional evocation of life in rural West Virginia but, sadly f…
At the End of Words
At the End of WordsAt the End of Words is a collection of poems and reflections by high school student Miriam Stone on the illness and death of her mother. Martha St…
Becoming Anna
Becoming AnnaI was asked to do this review with two advance notes: one, that two previous reviewers had found this book too difficult to read, and two, that I should…
Bequest and Betrayal
Bequest and BetrayalBut what does it mean to think about the death of one's parents when there is no generation to follow? What happens to our legacy if there is no next of…
Bloodletting
BloodlettingFor most of her life Victoria Leatham, (now in her early thirties) has been plagued by thoughts of self harm. For a long period cut her wrists in respons…
Bodies in Motion and at Rest
Bodies in Motion and at RestThose familiar with Thomas Lynch’s excellent book The Undertaking will fin…
Bone
BoneBone by Marion Woodman is a very intense account of a woman's struggle with cancer and her survival. Being a psychoanalyst has helped the author t…
Boy
BoyOriginally released in 1984, Roald Dahl’s memoir Boy has been newly recorded as an unabridged audiobook read by the distinguished Brit…
Breaking Apart
Breaking ApartWendy Swallow writes about her life, how married, had two boys, then soon separated, and eventually divorced. She is ten years younger than her moody, creat…
Caged Lion
Caged LionDid you know that Pilates, a widely-known modern exercise system, was the name of an actual person? If not, you are in good company—the author, John Howard Steel, posed this question at a 2007 convention for The Pilates Method Alliance, and he estimated
Camgirl
CamgirlIsa Mazzei recounts her experience as a sex worker for the cam industry. She is from Colorado, and that's where she worked from. Her family was a reasonably well off since her parents had professional jobs. Family life was not particularly happy, with her
Cherry
CherryThe penultimate chapter of this memoir details Karr's recollection of a night she spent with her friends going to a seedy nightclub at the age of about seve…
City of One
City of OneFrancine Cournos’ memoir of her life focuses mainly on her childhood and the effects the loss of her parents had on her. She was born in the 1940s,…
Clues
CluesClues is a brief memoir of Marvin Cohen, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He chronicles the strange events that lead him to believe…
Complications
ComplicationsThis book is divided into three parts: fallibility, mystery and uncertainty, aspects of life we are unused to hearing discussed in the medical world. A…
Confessions of a Cereal Eater
Confessions of a Cereal EaterThis collection of stories from the life of Rob Maisch is in comic book form, illustrated in black and white by various new artists using comic book form…
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba
Daughter of the Queen of ShebaIn her Acknowledgments Jacki Lyden thanks a Writers Workshop and a Writing Program. In the early chapters I was not so sure she should thank them. He…
Detour
DetourDetour is another memoir by a high-achieving young person with mental illness, reminiscent of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s…
Devil in the Details
Devil in the DetailsAs a child and teenager, Jennifer Traig suffered from religious obsessions: she explains that this is called scrupulosity. While her mother was Roman Ca…
Divided Minds
Divided MindsA memoir that reminds us not to take sanity for granted, Divided Minds is a haunting testimony to the horrors of mental illness. Pamela Wa…
Don't Get Too Comfortable
Don't Get Too ComfortableDon't Get Too Comfortable is a collection of essays and magazine articles by David Rakoff with a wry acerbic view of modern culture. My favorite…
Drinking
DrinkingCaroline Knapp is a high achiever, despite her alcoholism. What she does, she does well, and her book Drinking: A Love Story is no exception. I tu…
Einstein
Einstein"They are cheering me because everyone understands me; they are cheering you because no one understands you!" – Charlie Chaplin to Albert…
Elegy for Iris
Elegy for IrisElegy for Iris—the memoir of the novelist and literary critic John Bayley about his love affair with his wife Iris Murdoch, and the progressi…
Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing
Elliott Smith and the Big NothingFor those familiar with the music of Elliott Smith, it was particularly upsetting to hear the news that he had killed himself in October, 2003, at the ag…
Epileptic
EpilepticEpileptic is a graphic memoir in black and white, translated from three original French books titled L’Asenscion du Haut-Mal. It tells…
Everything In Its Place
Everything In Its PlaceThis chatty book is the story of not just Marc Summers' experience of obsessive compulsive disorder but also his rise in the entertainment business. The…
Everything is Fine
Everything is FineIn 2014, Tim Granata killed his mother Claudia at their family home, using knives, a sledgehammer and rope. He was 22 and she was 58. He had schizophrenia, and had been off his medication for months. Once he was put on trial, he was found not guilty by re
Exiting Nirvana
Exiting NirvanaUntil the advent of Rain Man (1988) and Dustin Hoffman…
Find Me
Find MeFind Me is not the usual celebrity memoir. Rosie O'Donnell does not set out her life starting at the beginning, the difficult early years, the st…
First Person Plural
First Person PluralDr. Cameron West is an excellent and humorous writer. You will find this book very hard to put down. The book opens up with an introduction to Cam’…
Fortress of My Youth
Fortress of My YouthLike The Diary of Anne Frank most diaries about the Holocaust end at the point when the individual is taken prisoner. This is just the point that…
Fraud
FraudI first became aware of David Rakoff’s writing through public radio’s This American Life, where h…
Fumbling
FumblingI approached this book with a song in my heart, expecting an uplifting story of a pilgrimage, full of depth and interest. The cover promises a tale of lo…
Fun Home
Fun HomeFun Home is a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, the creator of the long-running and inspired Dykes to Watch Out For comic strip series. Dep…
Gutted
GuttedWhen I first started reading Gutted, I was a bit slow coming around to the idea of reading about someone's home-building project in Sag Harbor.…
Half a Brain Is Enough
Half a Brain Is EnoughBattro's book recounts the case of Nico, a student and subject at his research laboratory. The author, a cognitive psychologist interested in educa…
Heavier than Heaven
Heavier than HeavenInevitably, in writing a biography, there are many possible ways of framing the subject’s life. Charles R. Cross narrates the story of Kurt Cobain&…
Hello to All That
Hello to All ThatThis book is an autobiography which interleaves the author's life as a child, teenager and university student with the year he spent as a correspondent i…
Her Husband
Her HusbandMost biographies of Sylvia Plath tend to take a side in the battle between her and her husband Ted Hughes. Diane Middlebrook's account of their marriage…
Hole in My Life
Hole in My LifeWhat do you get if you mix the perspective of Holden Caulfield with the journalistic style of Ernest Hemingway, and add for good measure some Poe-like twist…
How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me
How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill MePart memoir and part survival guide, How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me aims to provide practical and immediate advice for tho…
Read the full review of How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
How to Lose Friends & Alienate PeopleYears ago I remember reading that whereas the Life of Winston Churchill, Roosevelt or Marilyn Monroe, illustrated, would be a good read, the lives and ti…
Read the full review of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
I Never Promised You a Rose GardenAccording to the author, this book was written to counteract the romantic notions about the mentally ill that cropped up in the 1960's and 1970's. During…
I Remain in Darkness
I Remain in DarknessThis little book contains diary entries of Annie Ernaux (translated from the French) written around the period she was caring for her dying mother. They…
Imagining Robert
Imagining RobertWhat is most impressive about Neugeboren's account of his family's history and their reaction to his brother Robert's behavior is not his passion, his eloqu…
In Search of Fatima
In Search of FatimaIn Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi tells a sad story of lost. In 1948 when Palestine ceased to exist, so did Ghada Karmi's ch…
Jack Cole and Plastic Man
Jack Cole and Plastic ManJack Cole was the artist responsible for the 1940s comic superhero Plastic Man. In the 1950s Cole drew humorous sketches for Hug…
Just Checking
Just CheckingSeveral months ago, I happened to tune my radio to Fresh Air just as Terry Gross was concluding her interview with Emily Colas, the author of Just Checki…
Limbo
LimboLimbo is the autobiographical account of A. Manette Ansay. It is a powerfully narrated, at places poignant, account of a woman whose life takes a…
Lincoln's Melancholy
Lincoln's MelancholyJoshua Wolf Shenk says that Lincoln's Melancholy is not a psychobiography because it lacks the hallmark of that genre, viz., starting with a psych…
Little People
Little PeopleDan and Barbara Kennedy have two children, Tim and his little sister Becky. At her birth in 1992, Becky was eight pounds, two ounces and nineteen and a…
Losing My Mind
Losing My MindSome books impart information, some give advice, some entertain, while some books open a window onto the innermost thoughts and deepest feeling…
Love Works Like This
Love Works Like ThisIn her third or fourth memoir, depending on how you count, psychologist Lauren Slater tells the latest twist to her story of living with mental illness,…
Love You, Mean It
Love You, Mean ItLove You, Mean It is a true story of love, loss, and friendship. The four coauthors are women who were widowed tragically by the 9/11 Worl…
Lying
LyingIn her latest memoir, French-Canadian memoirist Lauren Slater describes her struggle with epilepsy and her eventual cure through psychotherapy and medica…
Mad Pride
Mad PrideThe most interesting aspect of Mad Pride: A Celebration of Mad Culture is its title. It draws connections between the liberation of oppressed peo…
Magical Thinking
Magical ThinkingWhile the many people who write Internet blogs telling stories from their lives get few readers, Augusten Burroughs has managed to convince publishers to…
Marcel Proust
Marcel ProustAlso reviewed here: Remembrance of Things Past, Vol 1: Combray Graphic Novel…
Mary Barnes
Mary BarnesMary Barnes' autobiography is one of the frankest and most literal accounts of madness you are likely to read. From her description of her early family l…
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Me Talk Pretty One DayRegular listeners to This American Life will be familiar with David Sedaris' reading of his own work. Sedaris…
Meaning
MeaningViktor Frankl probably needs little introduction to readers. He is, of course, the originator of the so-called third school of Viennese psychiatry, logot…
Memoirs of My Nervous Illness
Memoirs of My Nervous IllnessIn the history of psychiatry, no other schizophrenic has been investigated as thoroughly as Daniel Paul Schreber (1842-1911). Countless distinguished com…
Misconceptions
MisconceptionsPart-expose, part-autobiography, Misconceptions is Naomi Wolf’s account of pregnancy, childbirth and the early months of motherhood. Wo…
Miss American Pie
Miss American PieMiss American Pie is the diary of Margaret Sartor, from January 1972 when she was in seventh grade, to 1977 when she graduated from high school.…
Mockingbird Years
Mockingbird YearsI had been in therapy a couple of years, during my time in graduate school and I was in my mid-twenties, when I confronted my roommate. With my new confiden…
My First Cousin Once Removed
My First Cousin Once RemovedSarah Payne Stuart is an insider. She has relatives who came over on the Mayflower; relatives who were very famous poets; relatives who were fabulously weal…
My Life Among the Serial Killers
My Life Among the Serial KillersMy Life Among the Serial Killers is a fascinating look at some of the world's most notorious serial killers. Forensic psychiatrist Helen Morrison…
My Sister Life
My Sister LifeThis book is misleading in both its cover and title. It looks like a great book, and the title sounded appealing. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Mari…
Name All the Animals
Name All the AnimalsAlison Smith's memoir Name All the Animals covers the years of her adolescence from the time that her elder brother Roy was killed in a camper van…
Neural Misfire
Neural MisfireThis rather unusual autobiographical book, written in the third person, vividly describes one young man's experience with the first symptoms of manic depres…
No Hurry to Get Home
No Hurry to Get HomeRead this book with caution! If you have even a slight penchant for wanderlust and travel, be careful. If you have any commitments to your current life, be…
Nola
NolaWho is Nola? In essence, this is the question that haunts Robin Hemley in his memoir devoted to exploring the world of his sister and her eventual descen…
Of Spirits & Madness
Of Spirits & MadnessOf Spirits and Madness describes one young psychiatrist’s journey into the world of medicine in Zimbabwe in 1994. Largely…
One Hundred Days
One Hundred DaysDavid Biro, a physician, practices with his father and is an Asst. Professor at Down State Medical College (State University of NY). Several years ago, at…
Ophelia Speaks
Ophelia SpeaksIn Reviving Ophelia, Mary Pipher argued that the country's young wo…
Pagan Time
Pagan TimeThis memoir describes life in the late 1960s and early 1970s in an alternative community in New England dominated by Micah Perks' raging unreasonable father…
Passing for Normal
Passing for NormalAmy Wilensky's memoir is about her experience of obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourette's syndrome. She was born in 1969, so she is still starting her c…
Perfect Example
Perfect ExamplePerfect Example is a collection of stories by John Porcellino about his teenage years. At the end of the book, Porcellino outlines his life story…
Planet of the Blind
Planet of the BlindStephen Kuusisto is legally blind, and for nearly all his life he has had severe visual impairments. He is a gifted writer, so his memoir of his life is…
Please Don't Kill the Freshman
Please Don't Kill the FreshmanPlease Don't Kill the Freshman is a diary by an Oregon high school girl, "Zoe Trope," of fifteen months of her life, from March 2001, wh…
Portraits of Huntington's
Portraits of Huntington'sPortraits of Huntington's: Choosing Joy Through Life Lessons is a followup to Carmen Leal's previous work on Huntington Disease, Faces of Hunti…
Prozac Diary
Prozac DiaryLauren Slater's account of her experience with Prozac is one of the most thought-provoking discussions of a person's relationship with medication av…
Quitting the Nairobi Trio
Quitting the Nairobi TrioKnipfel’s memoir of his six-month stay in a psychiatric ward is a good read. Readers of his previous memoir,…
Rebuilt
RebuiltFirst things first. The subtitle is wrong. This book is not about a journey back to the world of normal hearing. What it is about is the pr…
Recovered, Not Cured
Recovered, Not CuredRecovered, not Cured was the SANE Australia book of the year in 2004. I hadn't read much of this compact little memoir before I could see wh…
Rescuing Jeffrey
Rescuing JeffreyThis memoir chronicles ten days of crisis for the Galli family. Seventeen-year-old Jeffrey broke his neck diving into the swimming pool at a family friends'…
Restricted Access
Restricted AccessThose of us who came of age in the early years of feminism learned to think of our personal pain as the starting point for political action. Sexual p…
Revenge
RevengeIn 1986, Rabbi David Blumenfeld was shot in the Arab Market of the Old City of Jerusalem. In 1998, his daughter Laura Blumenfeld, a reporter for the Wash…
Riding the Bus With My Sister
Riding the Bus With My SisterThe memoir is one of the most prevalent, and lucrative, forms in contemporary American publishing. And as with many genres that are successful, it can s…
Room For J
Room For JSchizophrenia is possibly the most misunderstood of mental illnesses. If you recall, it was not too long ago that people everywhere thought schizop…
Rough Magic
Rough MagicThe figure of Sylvia Plath manages retain an almost cultish power over forty years after her suicide. A Hollywood movie, Sylvia, about her life a…
Running After Antelope
Running After AntelopeYou might have heard Scott Carrier on National Public Radio, reading his stories about his life or investigating cases of other people's lives gone awry. He…
Running with Scissors
Running with ScissorsAugusten Burroughs' disturbing memoir Running with Scissors has already received a great deal of praise, and it certainly is a gripping read. Bur…
Second Opinions
Second OpinionsSecond Opinions is about difficult decisions and when to trust a doctor's judgment. Each of the eight well-told stories is a meditation on how to…
She Got Up Off the Couch
She Got Up Off the CouchWhen Haven Kimmel was a girl, she was known as Zippy, and her first memoir was A Girl Named Zippy. As the publisher's description says, "Spu…
Shut the Door
Shut the DoorAs I forced myself to turn the pages of Amanda Marquit's first novel Shut the Door, I speculated whether it could be read as a comedy, maybe as a…
Sickened
SickenedSickened tells the story of Julie Gregory's abuse by her mother and father. The abuse took many forms, including verbal insults, beatings, threat…
Silencing the Voices
You can buy this book from Barnes & Noble.com at 20% discount: Click here.``
Slackjaw
SlackjawKnipfel writes a column in the weekly New York Press. He has the journalist's knack of getting your att…
Songs of the Gorilla Nation
Songs of the Gorilla NationThe basic story behind Dawn Prince-Hughes' memoir Songs of the Gorilla Nation is fascinating: she explains how she grew up knowing she was very di…
Special Siblings
Special SiblingsMary McHugh's younger brother, Jack, has a severe cognitive disability secondary to cerebral palsy. Her life has been shaped by her experiences with Jack…
Still Lives
Still LivesEnglish is a funny language. It can take a single word with a single spelling and make two or more meanings from it. A person with a spinal cord injury i…
Surviving Ophelia
Surviving OpheliaMary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls was an influential book that captured the concern about the plight of young…
Swing Low
Swing LowOn May 13, 1993, Melvin Toews, a retired elementary school teacher in the Canadian province of Manitoba, threw himself in front of a train, putting an en…
Talk to Her
Talk to HerThis collection of interviews, Talk to Her, is a follow up to McKenna's previous collection Book of Changes. It includes dialogs with many…
Telling
TellingIt has taken me a year to write this review--not to write it, really, but to be ready to write it. And I wonder, correlatively, if you are ready to read it.…
The Bell Jar
The Bell JarThe Bell Jar is such a classic of modern literature of mental illness that it verges on the absurd to review it, but the release of an unabridged…
The Body Silent
The Body SilentIn The Body Silent, Robert Murphy sets out his experience of entering the world of the disabled. In 1972, at the age of 48, he first started expe…
The Boy on the Green Bicycle
The Boy on the Green BicycleI stood for a long moment in the silence, then walked slowly down the stairs. I ran my hand along the banister and made myself think reasonably. Eve…
The Burn Journals
The Burn JournalsAt only fourteen years of age Brent Runyon secreted himself in the bathroom of his parents' house, soaked his bathrobe in gasoline and attempted suic…
The Camera My Mother Gave Me
The Camera My Mother Gave MeThis little book is somewhat strange. It is not by any means pornography, yet I must confess I was careful not to leave it on the coffee table, where my…
The Cancer Monologue Project
The Cancer Monologue ProjectThe Cancer Monologue Project is a collection of 30 monologues written and presented by survivors of cancer and in a few cases by their close kin.…
The Chelsea Whistle
The Chelsea WhistleIn this memoir of her first two decades, Michelle Tea relates the details of her life in Chelsea, a suburb of Boston. Her family was working class, and…
The Churkendoose Anthology
The Churkendoose AnthologyThe Churkendoose Anthology intrigued me with its title. What on earth is it? was the initial reaction. The sub-title explained that it is a collec…
The Day the Voices Stopped
The Day the Voices StoppedKen Steele was a fascinating and resilient character and this book is a testimony to a life led within the world of schizophrenia, a life dominated by fear…
The Disappearance
The DisappearanceComplicated Grief What's an appropriate response to tragedy? The Disappearance raises this question with terrible clarity. Twelve years…
The Discomfort Zone
The Discomfort ZoneJonathan Franzen reflects on his life and the world in his new book, The Discomfort Zone. It is a collection of six essays, telling tales from hi…
The Eden Express
The Eden ExpressIn 1969 Mark Vonnegut graduated from Swathmore College, packed up his Volkswagon, and with his girlfriend Virginia, and dog Zeke, set out for British Col…
The First Time
The First TimeThe First Time is a short book setting the results of a survey in which over 150 women of ages 13 to 74 reported on their first experiences of sex…
The Glass Castle
The Glass CastleWould well-dressed you feel mortified seeing your mother rooting for a blue-light special in a dumpster? Overdressed Jeanette quickly slid down the…
The Hillside Diary and Other Writings
The Hillside Diary and Other WritingsThose who have read Imagining Robert, Jay Neugeboren's excellent memoir about his brother Robert's lifelong struggle with mental illness, his fami…
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The Last Good Freudian
The Last Good Freudian"I was born and brought up to be in psychoanalysis," writes the author of The Last Good Freudian. She describes the 1950s, when she was in…
The Last Time I Wore a Dress
The Last Time I Wore a Dress"Well, if it isn't Dr Sigmund Fraud". This is Daphne's initial greeting to her psychiatrist at Chicago's Michael Reese Hospital (a long-term psychiatric…
The Liars' Club
The Liars' ClubAt times when reading this memoir, I felt that maybe I had misread the date, and it was really set in the 1860s rather than the 1960s. This story of life in…
The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton
The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet HiltonThe wonders of technology mean that you can go to YouTube and watch a clip of Daisy and Violet Hilton singing a number from their film, Chained for Life.…
Read the full review of The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton
The Lobotomist
The LobotomistHow could a man spend most of his life seeking to cure mental illness by cutting off one lobe of the brain and separating it from others? How could thos…
The Loony-Bin Trip
The Loony-Bin TripMillett's memoir of a period in her life when she was hospitalized is a classic of sorts. It's one of the earliest in the rash of memoirs of madness that…
The Making of a Philosopher
The Making of a PhilosopherTaking the longer view, one might feel that as a self-confessed philosophical autobiographer Colin McGinn stands in the company of some extremely im…
The Man Who Tasted Shapes
The Man Who Tasted ShapesThis edition of The Man Who Tasted Shapes is a republication of Cytowic's 1993 book, with the addition of a new afterword. The author notes in th…
The Me in the Mirror
The Me in the MirrorWhat is "ableism"? It's about not being able to go to school because no one would take her to the bathroom when she needed it. It's about having a mother,…
The Notebook Girls
The Notebook GirlsThe Notebook Girls is a gritty, shocking look into the lives of four freshman girls who attend Stuyvesant High School in New York City. The four f…
The Only Girl in the Car
The Only Girl in the CarIn The Only Girl in the Car, her memoir of her early adolescence, Kathy Dobie writes about her decision to lose her virginity and her bad choices…
The Outsider
The OutsiderThis remarkable book is dedicated to homeless people in New York City, which says a lot about it. It begins with a quotation from Long Day's Journey Into…
The Pits and the Pendulum
The Pits and the PendulumBrian Adams had his first manic-depressive episode in 1970, when he was a young community education student in Glasgow, Scotland. He produced his senior…
The Price of Peace
The Price of PeaceA 2006 poll, associated with George Mason University, posed a question. Which 20th century economist made the greatest contribution to the understanding of how economies work? John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was ranked number 1, defeating Friedrich Hayek,
The Professor and the Madman
The Professor and the MadmanThis book will be a major surprise and wonderful delight to the reader that finds it. It is hard to imagine that a book about the writi…
The Red Devil
The Red DevilOf the myriad impossible things one could believe before breakfast, one morning Katherine Russell Rich finds a lump in her left breast. She was taking a sho…
The Ride Together
The Ride TogetherThere are conventional books and unusual books. This one definitely comes in the second category. There has also been a rash of books about what it is li…
The Secret of Life
The Secret of LifeThis is a good and useful little book for young women, especially those who are confused about life and hurting from its disappointments. It comes from a…
The Story of My Father
The Story of My FatherSue Miller is a gifted author whose fiction books I have always enjoyed immensely. The Story of My Father is her first foray into nonfiction, to m…
The Summer of a Dormouse
The Summer of a DormouseLawyer, turned very successful author, playwright, creator of Rumpole of TV fame, John Mortimer is skilled, readable and very successful. This bo…
The Surrender
The SurrenderWarning: this review discusses anal sex and uses bad language. It also gives away details in the plot of the memoir. Toni Bentley (autho…
The Talking Cure
The Talking CureThere comes a time when many of us say to ourselves, “I hope I don’t end up like my mother”, (or father- whatever the case may be). Day after day we memorize their behavior, and come to know so well who we don’t want to emulate. Years…
The Years of Silence are Past
The Years of Silence are PastThe Years of Silence Are Past: My Father's Life with Bipolar Disorder opens with a disturbing episode. As his two young children sleep, Virgil Hi…
To Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the World
To Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the WorldIt is a sad fact that the name of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann has almost been forgotten and her contributions to the field of clinical psychoanalysis consider…
Read the full review of To Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the World
To Walk on Eggshells
To Walk on EggshellsTo Walk on Eggshells is a companion volume to The Naked Bird Watcher, Suzy Johnston's autobiographical account of mental illness. Written b…
Too Much and Never Enough
Too Much and Never EnoughFor anyone concerned about the psychological make-up and the background of Donald Trump, I recommend Mary Trump's book with both thumbs up. It is not great literature, it does not advance a bold new paradigm, but it is a useful, instructive, and often ent
Truth & Beauty
Truth & BeautyTruth & Beauty is a memoir by fiction author Ann Patchett of her friendship with poet and memoirist Lucy Grealy. It starts with her ride up t…
Truth Comes in Blows
Truth Comes in BlowsSqueezing the Slave Out In a strange and moving scene in the opening chapter of Theodore Solotaroff’s memoir, Truth Comes in Blows…
Twitch and Shout
Twitch and ShoutThe blurb on the back cover from Entertainment Weekly tells us that this is "The first memoir by someone with Tourette's syndrome." Written in…
Ultimate Judgement
Ultimate JudgementThis is an intense story of incest and sexual abuse. This is a true story of a woman that spent most of her life being victimized on a daily basis by peo…
We've Been Too Patient
We've Been Too PatientAs I read We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health, I had many urges. I wanted to sit with each author, tell them I understand. Part of the desire was protective, I, a psychiatrist, understand. I can't be as bad as all this, I actively
What Goes Up
What Goes UpWhat Goes Up is the emotionally wrenching story of a woman, author Judy Eron, who becomes ensnared inextricably in the insufferable web of her hus…
What I Learned in Medical School
What I Learned in Medical SchoolThis book starts with an interesting question - what happens to students in medical school? The first editor of the book seems to have had a particularl…
What's Normal?
What's Normal?What’s Normal? is a collection of readings for a course in literature and medicine taught in the weekend college at Hiram College. It focuses…
When It Gets Dark
When It Gets DarkWhen It Gets Dark: An Enlightened Reflection on Life with Alzheimer's by Thomas DeBaggio is a poignant account of a man's efforts to retain a part…
Where Did It All Go Right?
Where Did It All Go Right?I had never heard of A. Alvarez about ten years ago when he participated in a panel discussion in New York City about Sylvia Plath. He was the least famo…
Where is the Mango Princess?
Where is the Mango Princess?Readers, I've read many memoirs, and it's easy for me to get a little jaded about them, so when I tell you that Where Is the Mango Princess? made me…
Why I'm Like This
Why I'm Like ThisUpon first picking up this book, readers of Metapsychology may wonder if it holds in store for them anything more than a debut collection of pers…
Will's Choice
Will's ChoiceThis book is a beautifully written and extremely moving account by a woman who herself suffered from clinical depression and whose teenage son then went…
Winnicott
WinnicottDonald Winnicott is, undoubtedly, one of the most influential psychoanalysts of our post-Freudian epoch. The originality of his thinking, his openmindne…
With Their Eyes
With Their EyesWith Their Eyes is the text of a performance created by the students and staff of Stuyvesant High School, which is just a few blocks from the site…
Wrestling with the Angel
Wrestling with the AngelWith this comprehensive and engaging account of Janet Frame's life, Michael King reinforces his reputation as one of New Zealand's foremost historians and b…
You Must Be Dreaming
You Must Be DreamingSurvivors of abuse by psychotherapists are very often asked the question, "Why did you stay with the therapist if you knew that the therapy was making yo…
Zelda
ZeldaThe story of the Fitzgeralds, of Scott and Zelda, ranks high on the list of the twentieth century's great love stories. It has all the essential ingredie…