Informational Books About Specific Disorders
Carter,
R. & Golant, S. K. Helping
Someone With Mental Illness.
New York: Random House, 1998.
This book by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter
provides
staightforward, lay-oriented information about each of the major mental
illness--schzophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, and
obsessive-compulsive
disorder--and their treatment. It also offers advice on coping for
caregivers
and suggestions for helping to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
Goodwin,
Fred & Jamison, Kay (Editors). Manic-Depressive Illness. Oxford
University Press, 1990.
This comprehensive book presents information about
bipolar
(manic-depressive) disorder. It is not quite as reader-friendly as some
of the other books on this list in that it includes a fairly rigorous
review
of the extensive research literature on bipolAr disorder. The book also
discusses advancements in treatment and includes the perspectives of
those
who have had the disorder.
Hatfield,
Agnes & Lefley, Harriet P. Surviving Mental Illness. Guilford
Press, 1993.
Hatfield and Lefley
are two of the early leaders of the
family advocacy movement. In this book, they describe the
manifestations
of schizophrenia and discuss the disorder from the perspectives of the
individual with schizophrenia, the relatives of people with
schizophrenia,
and the community that encounters such individuals. The book also
highlights
aspects of adaptation and recovery.
Rapoport,
J. The Boy Who Couldn't
Stop Washing: Experience & Tx of Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder, 1989.
This brief book, by a leading NIMH researcher,
focuses
on obsessive-compulsive disorder, offering both individual stories and
general information about the symptoms, causes, and treatment of this
disorder.
Sacks,
Oliver. The Man Who
Mistook His Wife For A Hat.
New York: Harper
Collins, 1987.
This national bestseller contains many short
chapters,
each describing an individual with some neurological or brain disorder
whom Sacks has encountered in his practice. The perceptual and
intellectual
aberrations he describes gives readers a glimpse into the intriguing
complexities
of brain functioning, as well as help them to appreciate what sufferers
of these conditions experience.
This manual for
caregivers, now in its fourth edition,
focuses on schizophrenia. The book explains how its symptoms appear to
others and how they are experienced by the individual with the
disorder.
It also discusses treatment and caregiving issues and contains
suggestions
for how to advocate and to reduce stigma.
Wolpert,
Lewis. Malignant Sadness: The
Anatomy of Depression. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
Wolpert summarizes the history of
ideas about depression and the most recent scientific research. He
explains and integrates a number of different approaches to both
understanding and treating one of the most serious problems people
face. While the author does describe his own encounter with depression,
he does so briefly. This is not primarily a memoir or even an
exploration of the personal aspect of the experience. Rather, it sets
out the statistics, evolutionary psychology, psychodynamics, biology,
and psychiatry of depression. The book ends with discussion of the view
of depression in other cultures and the future of the role of
depression in our society.
Davidson,
L. (2003). Living
Outside Mental Illness. New York: New York University Press.
Head,
J. (2004). Standing
In
the Shadows: Understanding and Overcoming Depression in
Black Men. New York: Broadway Books.
Head,
J. Black Men and
Depression: Saving our Lives, Healing our Families and
Friends (Paperback version) 