When actress Glenn Close was dealing with her sister and nephew’s mental illness, she found several books very helpful in understanding what they were going through.
The one book by Rosalynn Carter gives a blueprint on improving our care system, the other three humanize mental disease with touching and poignant stories from both sufferers and their loved ones.
Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness by Pete Earley (Berkley Books)
An award-winning journalist investigates the brutal conditions of America’s mental-health system while narrating the story of his son’s struggle with mental illness and the care he gets.
An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison (Vintage)
A vivid memoir by a professor of psychiatry describing her own descent into manic-depressive illness and her own reconciliation to it as both healer and healed.
Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis by Rosalynn Carter (Rodale)
The former first lady draws on her many decades as an advocate for the mentally ill to propose a better solution to their care and recovery.
The Tattered Tapestry: A Family’s Search for Peace with Bipolar Disorder by Tom Smith, with Kevin and Karla Smith (iUniverse)
Mental illness affects a whole family and this touching story, narrated by a father and brother, chronicles the turmoil they faced when the loved one they adored was transformed by bipolar disorder.
