The Brain and Mind discussion

Does anyone know of any choice books on mental illness? Biographical, or documentary?
Or even a good novel?

The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America

This is an interesting read. It tells about hypomania and its possible influential effects on teh formation of America by telling condensed biographies great figures he believes had hypomania. Bio's include Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Carnegie, and Craig Venter

What kind of mental illnesses are of interest to you, Nothern? There are quite a few biographies and fiction books on depression and autism. There is a good recent fiction book about a person developing early-onset Alzheimer's (Still Alice). Just finished reading it and can hearlity recommend it to anyone interested in brain/mental disease in general and Alzheimer's specifically. It's scientifically correct (the author studied Azheimer's for her PhD in Neuroscience at Harvard), and a nice story, too.

I have a lot of interest in mental aspects of both madness/'normality' and have requested STILL ALICE

A little off the subject but has anyone seen the film SHOCK THERAPY?
If so what think about it - a fairly old film with Lauren Bacall, James Whitmore, Roddy Mc Dowell
if not check it out as has to do with general topic and interesting plus some scenes are very realistic I think but fortunately don't have 1st hand knowledge of whether the scenes are actually realistic

A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness

This was an eye-opening book. I have thought about it often since reading it. It seems pretty outlandish at first but now that I've thought about it for several months, it seems fairly accurate. Great book.

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Touched with Fire: Manic-depressive Illness & the Artistic Temperament

I find Kay Jamison's books intriguing. And they are first-hand life experiences, basically biographical. I highly recommend the above two books.

Heather wrote: "An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness" and "Touched with Fire: Manic-depressive Illness & the Artistic Temperament" I find Kay Jamison's books intriguing. And they are first-hand life experien..."

Thanks for the recommendation, Heather. I'll go find these. Take care.

A Beautiful Mind

Goes over the life of Nobel prize winning mathematician, John Nash. Quite interesting and even has a movie version if you'd prefer that for whatever reason.

Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness

A non fiction that talks about the state of mental health system in the US today. Pete was inspired to research and write the book after his son had a psychotic attack from his bipolar illness.

I Know This Much is True

This one was recommended to me but I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Its a fiction about identical twins one of whom has schizophrenia. Has very good reviews on Amazon, it was a book from Oprah book club which would normally turn me off but it was recommended from a neuroscience researcher so might be worth taking a look.

Kopec wrote: "A Beautiful Mind

Goes over the life of Nobel prize winning mathematician, John Nash. Quite interesting and even has a movie version if you'd prefer that for whatever reason."

Thank you for bringing that one up, Kopec. I really enjoyed the movie so I got the book. As much as I think written literature is better than movie versions, I didn't find this the case in this particular story. The book was very technical, and honestly, a lot of it seemed over my head as I am not mathematically minded. The gist was good, though

If you are looking for a novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is an acknowledged classic about mental illness and how society reacts to it. Although a book of its time, I like the way that it acknowledges the flexibility of the boundary between madness and sanity, and contributes to the debate over the social construction of mental illness. An interesting fact is that it is only since 1973 that the American Psychiatric Association has excluded homosexuality from its diagnostic manual.