 [Larger view] | Mad House: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings
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| From the author | |
| Hi Folks, I just wanted to say thank you to all the readers who've read Mad House and either posted here or contacted me. So many of you are also siblings, and I am gratified that many of you have found your experiences reflected in my book. I've tried to show, through my experiences and the dozens of you interviewed, that while our story may be one of the quieter ones in our family, it is still valid and deserving of space. Strength and health to you all! I've used the same combination of memoir and interviews (more than 70) in my new book, "Fatherless Women: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads" (Wiley). If any of you read that, please let me know what you think. peace, Clea | |
| MAELESTROM OF MENTAL ILLNESS | |
| Clea is the luckiest of her siblings. Her older brother, a brilliant boy, showed signs of psychosis in early adulthood. He somehow managed to attend Harvard and upon leaving the renowned university, succumbs to his illness. He marries a woman from his halfway house and they have a daughter. The brother commits suicide and the baby remains unheard from. Clea was in college at the time of her brother's death and her parents curiously give her a false account of how her brother killed himself. That is never explained. Clea's sister Katherine appears to be the most unstable. She, too, started showing signs of the illness in late adolescence and was barely able to fight her psychosis and finish high school. She lived from hospital to halfway house, never really finding her niche. Her erratic behavior precluded her from staying at halfway houses and in one memorable account in the book, a landlady requested that her parents come and collect her after she defecated on a mattress. Katherine remained a "living" casualty of mental illness; at the close of the book, Clea did not even know where she was. Clea is a strong voice, a strong advocate for the families of the mentally ill. Her poignant book is yet another reminder that mental illness is often a family illness because of the tragic impact it has on non-mentally ill members. | |
| Helpful to anyone with ill siblings... | |
| I did not grow up with schizophrenic siblings, although there is a history of the disease in my adopted family. What I did experience was two sisters with very disturbing behavior, and I found Mad House to be a great help in describing a lot what went on in my particular house and family. Clea Simon does a terrific job portraying the stress and chaos mentally ill siblings can cause and the far-reaching effects this can have on well family members. In her case, she had a brother and sister with schizophrenia, and her sympathetic yet realistic depiction of life under such circumstances is fascinating, informative and clearly thoroughly researched. Her knowledge of the topic enables her to speak intelligently and cogently about very disturbing emotions, such as the overwhelming fear that she, too, would contract this dreaded disease. Part of what is best about this book is that Simon speaks to a wide range of people who have also grown up or dealt with schizophrenic siblings, and the candid, personal and touching perspectives they provide complements Simon's own experience. It is truly fascinating how many of the 'healthy' siblings have found their way into the mental health profession, enabling them to 'help' their sick brothers and sisters in a variety of ways, however indirectly. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in family dynamics, mental illness or for anyone who grew up with someone who exhibited anti-social, destructive behavior. The wide array of response to such situations are well-documented and described, and it is quite a relief to find one's own experiences echoed in those of others. But there's a great deal here worthwhile for those simply interested in the topic, and in the heart-wrenching effects mental illness can have on those who care about and for those stricken with the disease. |
