Patty Duke and Gloria Hochman (1992). A brilliant Madness: Living with manic-depressive illness New York: Bantam Books. Nonfiction .
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The story I read was the true-life story of the actress from the 70's, Patty Duke. This book was one of continuing suspense and you could hardly put it down for anticipation of what was to come. The one thing I did not like about this book was the way it alternated between Patty's story and the co authors medical views in every other chapter. I realize the importance of the medical view and making the general public aware of the medical characteristics, however the chapters about the medical issues were not as interesting to me. I suppose those chapters were a necessary evil for the book. The public would read the book because of Patty Duke and at the same time benefit from the medical knowledge within the chapters too.
Patty takes her position in society, as a celebrity, and uses her personal experiences to make the general public aware of manic depressive illness. The book could also be considered to give insight to Bipolar type I and type II. She also uses the book to hopefully brush off some of the negativity and stigmatisms that for many years has plagued mental illnesses. In her book, she openly reveals herself to what has been referred to as a shameful disease. She uses her abilities to show the everyday person that anyone can have mental disorders, even movie stars, actors/actresses, comedians and any and all celebrities as well as the general public to include you or someone related to you. She then describes the advantages to being on medication for manic depressive disorder. She also sites many others, including poets, writers, and artist who are highly creative and refuse to take the medication as they do not want to lose their creativity. As one artist says in the book, he is reluctant to give up the highs or the mania as he is too afraid of losing control of his creativity.
