I have to read an autobiography written by someone with a mental disorder. I can't find one that seems really interesting. Could someone please help me?
2007-09-05 05:01:33 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
Try "Eden Express" written by Kurt Vonnegut's son.
"The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity, is a 1975 book by Mark Vonnegut, son of American writer Kurt Vonnegut, about his experiences in the late 1960s and his major psychotic breakdown and recovery. The tendency to insanity he acknowledged may be partly hereditary, influencing him to take up the study of medicine and orthomolecular psychiatry.
The foreword was written by Kurt Vonnegut.
On why this book was written, Kurt Vonnegut can be quoted saying: "His wish is to tell people who are going insane something about the shape of the roller coaster they are on."
The Eden Express is an autobiographical account of Mark’s years immediately after college, his thoughts, experiences and descent into and eventual emergence from mental illness. It starts with the words, "June 1969: Swarthmore Graduation. The night before, someone had taken white paint and painted "Commence What?" on the front of the stage." It continues with his travelogue on his journey in an expertly packed VW Bug to the wilds of British Columbia to build a commune with his girlfriend and friends. The book continues till two years later, on Valentine's Day, 1971, Vonnegut was committed to Hollywood Psychiatric Hospital in Vancouver, about 10 days after taking mescaline, which left him unable to sleep and uninterested in eating. He was diagnosed as severely schizophrenic.
Kurt Vonnegut has said the book is about "...his crackup, straitjacket and padded cell stuff, from which he recovered sufficiently to graduate from Harvard Medical School."
The New York Times describes the book as "...Mark Vonnegut’s depiction of his descent into, and eventual emergence from, mental illness. As a recent college graduate, self-avowed hippie, and son of a counterculture hero, Vonnegut begins to experience increasingly delusional thinking, suicidal thoughts, and physical incapacity. In February 1971 he is committed to a psychiatric hospital… (an) honest, thoughtful, and moving account of the illness of schizophrenia. Required reading for those who want to understand insanity from the inside."
It's a great read.
2007-09-05 05:04:45 · answer #1 · answered by johnslat 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Wasted : A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher. Eating disorders stem from a mental disorder called Body Dysmorphic Disorder, and Hornbacher was a very extreme case. Hornbacher is an excellent writer and her memoir is compelling and very readable. If you like Wasted, she also has a really good novel, The Center of Winter.
2007-09-05 05:17:16 · answer #2 · answered by Miss Angora 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You should try Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig. She writes about her life growing up as an orthodox Jew and dealing with an almost debilitating affliction with obsessive compulsive disorder. It was one of those books I finished in just a few days because I couldn't put it down. This is a really different and interesting book and I'd recommend it to anyone.
2007-09-05 05:16:47 · answer #3 · answered by Sarah J 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The only one I've ever read was called The Three Faces of Eve.
It's about the first documentation of Multiple personalities. How they found out about it, and all the events that made her have them. It's pretty graphic and gross, but it's a true story.
I don't know who the author is. Only the title.
I couldn't put the book down.
Hope you find it, because it's really ineresting.
2007-09-05 05:19:10 · answer #4 · answered by Amy Beware 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
Though the character is not "her" in the story, it is still directly drawn from Sylvia Plath's life. She had some pretty severe mental disorders, and she was suicidal. She's also my favorite author/poet. I promise you'll like it.
2007-09-05 05:38:47 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
How about A Million Little Pieces by James Frey? He lied, and that's pretty mental to me.
2007-09-05 05:06:11 · answer #6 · answered by YAWritergirl 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm waiting for Bush and Cheney's memoirs
2007-09-05 12:47:36 · answer #7 · answered by Brigid 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Prozac Nation...the main character suffers from depression and has issues with taking medication that could help her.
http://www.amazon.com/Prozac-Nation-Elizabeth-Wurtzel/dp/1573225126
2007-09-05 05:14:38 · answer #8 · answered by Monica S 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋