Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia
by Pamela Spiro Wagner, Carolyn Spiro
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Book Summary Information
Author: Carolyn Spiro, Pamela Spiro WagnerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-08
ISBN: 0312320655
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Book Reviews of Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia
Book Review: Worth reading, but frustrating
Summary: 3 Stars
Divided Minds provides some insight into schizophrenia, but its premise - that identical sisters, one with schizophrenia and one without, would give special insight into the disease - was frustrated by an undefined repetitive image (Gray Crinkled Paper) and the denial of Carolyn, the nonschizophrenic psychiatrist twin.
The source of Pamela's schizophrenia is obvious from the tale of the two sisters, as each was subjected to a mentally abusive father in different ways. Pamela was assumed to be capable, so excess pressure was placed on her to succeed. Carolyn was assumed to be incapable, so she was always treated as second-best and incapable. Pamela retreats into schizophrenia. Carolyn retreats into psychiatry, a failed attempt at normalcy, and denial.
In the end, Carolyn hides behind her profession's official stance that schizophrenia's cause is unknown, a biologically-based disease, not caused by events in one's life or inability to deal with circumstances. But the story itself shows that's not true. Had the book's intention been to point this out, I'd have enthusiastically granted it five stars.
Pamela's harrowing descent into schizophrenia, along with horrific treatment by the psychiatric profession, makes for interesting and revealing reading. It's rather frustrating, though, that the central symbol of the book - Gray Crinkled Paper - is never defined. It likely has something to do with being caught in a world that is twisted on itself, but that is merely my interpretation. It's Pamela's personal symbol, so only she can tell us what it means, assuming that she herself knows.
Divided Minds tells a tale of schizophrenia without hope. It never investigates the possibility of cure, though there are people who have been cured - but never by the drugs that the nonschizophrenic psychiatrist sister herself prescribes. It simply accepts the prevailing doctrine of psychiatry, the idea that warehousing and drugging is the only possible course. Thus, it preserves an approach that does not work and ultimately destroys the person with schizophrenia even more surely than the disease itself.
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