No comments about And the Journey Begins.

1 comments about Through the Barren Trees.

1. I met Nancy on an airplane. She was reading her own book, interestingly enough. It's been a year since it was published and it was her time for to re-trace her own footsteps in the path she once walked. It's a journal that was thankfully written for her own purposes and thankfully shared in "Through the Barren Trees". Sometimes it takes a shock to the system, a test of your humanity, a disaster, perhaps a windfall, to test one's resilience. In this case, Nancy's resilience was tested, and she rebounded with apparently a stronger spirit. It's a story about growing spiritually. It's a story about "why we're here" It's a story worth reading if you're on a path towards you're own enlightened self. I'm pretty sure you can find value in it regardless of your religious tendency. It's not a religious book, it's a spiritual one. Enjoy. Thank you for sharing, Nancy!

No comments about Inside Anorexia: The Experiences of Girls and Their Families.

No comments about Always Happy or The Story of Helen Keller.

3 comments about Things No Longer There: A Memoir of Losing Sight and Finding Vision.

1. These are personal stories of the author Susan Krieger's slow loss of sight and provides ten brief reflections and one novella-length drama which follows Susan's birdwatching in a New Mexico desert, learning to use a white cane, and final enjoyment of life's visions before losing her sight. Outer landscapes may change, but inner vision persists - and Susan Krieger faces disability and a changed life with renewed vision. Things No Longer There is very highly recommended reading.



2. These are personal stories of the author Susan Krieger's slow loss of sight and provides ten brief reflections and one novella-length drama which follows Susan's birdwatching in a New Mexico desert, learning to use a white cane, and final enjoyment of life's visions before losing her sight. Outer landscapes may change, but inner vision persists - and Susan Krieger faces disability and a changed life with renewed vision. Things No Longer There is very highly recommended reading.



3. These are personal stories of the author Susan Krieger's slow loss of sight and provides ten brief reflections and one novella-length drama which follows Susan's birdwatching in a New Mexico desert, learning to use a white cane, and final enjoyment of life's visions before losing her sight. Outer landscapes may change, but inner vision persists - and Susan Krieger faces disability and a changed life with renewed vision. Things No Longer There is very highly recommended reading.

2 comments about Sex, Violence, and Schizophrenia.

1. This book amazed me! I have known the author for several years and knew him during this time he writes of. He writes about the confusion, the voices, the strange ideas and paranoia with startling clarity and honesty. As he says in his own words, this book is not so much about how he lived and coped with his schizophrenia, it's a glimpse into the mind of the schizophrenic personality. I think this book would be great for psych students or just for help in understanding someone you may know who has been diagnosed with this disease. It won't tell you how to deal with them, but it will give you an open window into where they are..just know that it will be stranger than anything you can imagine!



2. This book shows, very well, what it's like to have schizophrenia. He was very brave. I know the guy and he's a good person and very funny. I'm just glad he did not shoot himself, because I may have in the same situation! I would have never know what he went through by knowing him, but after reading this I have a new respect for him. This book is easy to read and follow. The book is terrifying at times and funny at other times. He shows what it was like to walk in his shoes through that period of time. It's very detailed. You will really enjoy reading this book. Buy it now.

5 comments about Silencing the voices: one woman's experience with multiple personality disorder.

1. Even though I don't have multiple personality I could relate with many parts of this book. I thought it was wonderfully written and gave me things to think about in my abuse recovery. Many thanks to those who have the courage to step out and share their lives in order to help others.



2. As the spouse of a multiple I found this book to be very informative in the area of how the multiple personalities process in their mind the abuse they are put through. I noted many similarities from my own observations. One of my wife's personalities wants to read the book but I've cautioned her about the potential triggering portions but also stated that she might find the description of the road to integration to be encouraging. Congradulations to the author. I have an understanding of the strength it took to write this book.



3. In doing research about Dissociative Identity Disorder I was referred to this book. It clarified so many things about the disorder, how it works, how if affects everyone from the patient to the family and how it can be cured. I highly recommend this book! It's a wonderful story of support and recovery and also gives a graphic depiction into the mind/life of an abuser; through her father's actions. Jean has done a good job of relaying her experiences to the world.



4. Jean Cline's recounting of her horrific experiences with her twisted father took courage. She does not back away from her experiences in retelling them in this book; she confronts them and by setting an example encourages others to do likewise.

   Jean Cline developed three distinct personalities to cope with her overwhelming life conditions. Like most persons with DID/MPD, she was highly creative, artistically talented and suffered horrendous abusive childhood experiences. She gives a fresh voice to this now recognized condition and it is through her perseverance that she is able to "integrate" her "alters" and become a core. She is Gestalt; the whole person is greater than the sum of her parts (alters). Like a shifting kaleidoscope, Jean Cline shifts into various patterns of behavior and appearances. Like a kaleidoscope, at no time is she ever the same. Once integrated, she is able to make peace with herself.




5. Even today, Multiple Personality Disorder(MPD) challenges psychologists and health care practitioners. One common denominator MPD patients seem to share is childhood trauma, usually sexual and/or physical abuse. Children use the natural human ability to "disassociate" when the pain or trauma becomes more than they can bear. After the body has been hurt, the child may no longer feel the pain because the mind has found "a safer place to be." In MPD "alters" or "other personalities" emerge; they may be male or female, child or adult, extrovert or introvert. This book is the journey of Jean Darby Cline from childhood abuse at the hands of her father, verbal abuse in her first marriage, and diagnosis as a "multiple" to therapy and healing with the help of Jack M. Reiter, M.D.,P.S.

   As the book will reveal, the healing process can be as painful as the childhood abuse. During therapy, the patient often relives the memories and pain of the abuse. Often MPD patients are not aware, prior to therapy, of the multiples living inside them. They may realize there is a problem but not know exactly what the problem is. Jean Darby Cline exposes her feelings, fears and pain, and gives the reader a true account and inside view of what it is like to live with MPD. In her case, she had three alters, but it is not uncommon for patients to have many, many more as was the case in the book, "Sybil."

   If you want to learn more on MPD, I would highly recommend "Silencing the Voices" as well as, "First Person Plural" by Cameron West(see my review.)Both are excellent books on the subject.

5 comments about Saving Milly: Love, Politics, and Parkinson's Disease (Ballantine Reader's Circle).

1. Morton Kondrake's book is about much more than his wife Milly's Parkinson's disease. It's also about their life together, their marriage, the differences that caused friction between them, Kondrake's struggles in his career and those to overcome his own weaknesses, including, for a time, alcoholism. What emerges is a story of quiet heroism, both his and Milly's, as she defies the odds and continues to prove that her will to live is greater than her despair. Kondrake also writes about the politics of research and fundraising for various diseases, and how some diseases have more cache than others, even if the disease garnering more print and air time afflicts far fewer people than other devastating ailments. This may not come as a shock to people but it is still important so that we can all do what we can to campaign to make disease research and funding more equitable.

   I was most touched by Kondrake's unsparingly honest account of his own shortcomings as a man, a husband, and father, and how Milly, and eventually, her Parkinson's disease, made him grow into a far greater man than he was before. The fact that this is a true account makes this book very significant, and more moving than any fiction could be. It's impossible not to read it without tears.




2. Reading this book was like sitting at a kitchen table and letting Mort just pour his story out over a cup of coffee (like Mort, I am a recovering drunk so we can't do it over a beer). His is a story of passion, love, commitment and clear proof that there is nothing in my life I can ever complain about again.
   
   Millie is an extraordinary woman, her struggles with life, faith and Parkinson's come alive in this real narrative. You can't help but feel her pain, and Mort's immense love and commitment to her.
   
   I have always liked Kondracke as a pundit - I am a liberal republican, he a conservative democrat. We share similar feelings about nearly every issue except who we are most likely to initially vote for in a Presidential race. His struggle to get government officials to hear his plea for funding pissed me off - and I am sure you will share his frustrations in the reading.
   
   Most critically, you will absolutely be moved by the openness, honesty and devotion in this story.



3. I had known Milly Kondracke for a quarter of a century before her death last year of Parkinson's disease. She was my mentor. Morton's memoir of their marriage is touching, well-written and a quick read.
   
   My only regret is that Morton glossed over Milly's wonderful gift as a social worker/therapist in a paragraph, for that was her career identity. Milly did her own mourning when she had to cease her private practice due to her illness. Still the book gives you a taste of her personality, one of those persons who were larger than life.
   
   "Saving Milly" achingly illustrates the struggle of a family who must care for a loved one through a long term illness and raises the question of politics, funding and ethics for those with incurable illnesses. I highly recommend this book.



4. Paperback includes both a reading guide and a compelling interview with Kondracke by his comrade, Fred Barnes. In particular, it is interesting to learn about what Kondracke wishes he had done a bit differently in telling the story. In a sense, Kondracke stands outside the story to evaluate how faithfully he told it, an extraordinary exercise.
   
   Maybe this book is less about Milly and more about "saving Milly" and what that meant: pragmatically, socially, politically, spiritually. It's a useful distinction to bear in mind. There is some background information about this brave and lovely woman, but inasmuch as the topic is an encounter with a disease she has, this is not a biography of Milly. It is a picture of sickness and its impact: not of the woman, herself.
   
   There are plenty of books about people with illness: fewer, by far, about the very flawed, though devoted, individuals who care for them. Kondracke seems no longer to flinch at the shadows of his inadequacy and pomposity, which might encourage the reader to consider a similarly brave examination of conscience. Many of us will be called to be caregivers. This is no map, but it is a clear narrative of costs, rewards, pain, and delight that bubble up in the dynamic between cared-for and caregiver.
   
   I liked the book a lot and absolutely recommend the paperback edition because of its additions.



5. Excellent book, well written. Anyone who has, or is spouse or friend of
   someone with Parkinson's should read this book. It will make you cry and then make you mad, really mad. The U.S. Government should read it and see
   how poorly funds are distributed for aid and research. It's a shame.

No comments about Mental Illness/Spiritual Warfare: Two Sides to the Same Coin.

1 comments about Full Face: A Correspondence About Becoming Deaf in Mid-Life.

1. This is an excellent book for both deaf and hearing people. As someone who is partly deaf and whose hearing is worsening with the years, the advice in this book was timely and needed both for me and for my family, all of whom hear perfectly. Time and again, I found the author writing just what I had been feeling or experiencing, as if she had been riding on my shoulder the past few years. And boy, can she write! Excellent prose, witty, graceful, and compelling. Some of the references may be out of date now but the wisdom of this book will never be. She addresses not only the practical sides of hearing loss but also the emotional, mental and spiritual sides in a manner that is never intrusive on one's own beliefs but always like listening to a loving and wise friend. I cannot recommend this book enough, especially for anyone in a family in which someone is losing their hearing and thus their life-giving contact with others.