This is one of the most essential books about mental illness that there is: In addition to chronicling his son's terrible slide into his disease, Early catalogs just how awful the US system for treating the mentally ill has become.
He traces the origins and reasons for how it came to be like this, and makes some suggestions for repair. (I find his diagnosis more compelling than the--admittedly vague--solutions he proposes.)
And, his description of what happened to his son, his family, and to Early himself is heart-wrenchingly honest and familiar to anyone who's endured a mentally ill loved one's up and downs (especially the legal right to refuse treatment and the wildly exorbitant costs for those who seek it).
He traces the origins and reasons for how it came to be like this, and makes some suggestions for repair. (I find his diagnosis more compelling than the--admittedly vague--solutions he proposes.)
And, his description of what happened to his son, his family, and to Early himself is heart-wrenchingly honest and familiar to anyone who's endured a mentally ill loved one's up and downs (especially the legal right to refuse treatment and the wildly exorbitant costs for those who seek it).
Good, although disheartening, story of journalist Pete Earley's personal journey to help his mentally ill son.
