We Heard The Angels Of Madness: Amazon.ca: Lisa Berger: Books

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

The mother and sister of a manic-depressive teen relate the facts about the illness and describe how their family coped.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...will be invaluable to anyone with a close friend or relative suffering from manic depressive illness." -- Harrison G. Pope, Jr., M.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

"A wealth of detail and insight here..." -- Senator Pete Domenici and Nancy Domenici, Board of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill

"An excellent depiction of the reality of manic depressive disease as told from the family's inside view..." -- Donald F. Klein, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University

"An uncommonly useful book that should he a godsend to any family having amember afflicted with manic depression" -- Kirkus Reviews

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
The Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving is the worst travel day of the year, so it was no surprise when the flight from Denver to San Jose was three hours late. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars A bizarre depiction of Bipolar Illness, Nov 7 2002

By

Gordon Hoffman (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Heard The Angels Of Madness (Paperback)

As a longtime sufferer of Bipolar Illness, I found this account overly dramatic and somewhat misleading. First, Mark (the patient) is depicted as a pampered, privileged son of a doting, schizophrenigenic mother and a cold, unfeeling father. These superfluous characterizations make it difficult for the reader to curry any sympathy for any of them. Secondly, the presentation of his illness is uncharacteristic of most cases of Bipolar Illness. He clearly suffers severe delusions and hallucinations, but any periods of depression or manic excitement are practically non-existent. The book presents the illness more as a thought disorder than as an affective one. While there frequently is some overlap, this case presents more like schizophrenia. Lastly, the commentary by the mother is so sentimental as to be sappy. While the informational content is somewhat informative and entertaining, I would not choose this book as an authoritative source on Bipolar Illness.

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3.0 out of 5 stars One family's story, April 14 2002

By

D. L. Paulson (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: We Heard The Angels Of Madness (Paperback)

This is one family's unique story - do not buy this book for help. It's interesting; that's about it. Better yet - check it out from your local library and return it when you're done. Spend your money on reference materials that you will want to keep handy.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read-Very Realistic, Jan 5 2002

By

"nimbus22" (Denver, CO, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Heard The Angels Of Madness (Paperback)

I've been looking for this book for a long time, having read it several years ago when I really needed to know I was not alone. The excellant format of personal experience balanced with factual medical information was extremely helpful, especially as it traces each step in the process from diagnosis to ultimately living with the disease of manic-depression - both for family and the "diagnosee".
Having been diagnosed myself in 1978, long before bi-polar disorder became a household word, this was one of the few books to actually combine personal experience, familial perspective, and medical fact in a very readable book. It had me from the first incident of throwing a microwave through a plate glass window, then sitting down and waiting for the police to arrive. (In my view a definite cry for help!)

This book also gave me a parental perspective, thereby helping me to forgive my parents for the reactions they had and the actions they took in a time when there was little or no information available to them on manic-depression and it's manifestations. In addition, I was able to label some of my own thinking, (I came across the term "echolalia" for the first time) and discover elements of my actions actually were part of the disease, and not just my own "weirdness".

The thing I like best about this book today is that it is written by someone in the common walk of life. I have read Kay Jamison and Patty Duke, and have great respect for their contributions to the understanding of manic-depression/bi-polar disorder. I also own Mary Ann Copeland's books. But the Bergers are everyday people, and the biggest impact of their book (for me) is the hope inherent in their story: that despite the system, frustration and fear, love surmounts and life goes on.

Considering that Bi-Polar disorder has become the diagnosis of the decade, and the research that indicates the hereditary elements of manic-depression, I am glad to find this book again, so that I can be helpful to my daughters, should the need arise.

Definitely a "must-read" for anyone in the field of mental health, as well as anyone who knows anyone who has this disease.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars We Heard the Angels of Madness
This book has a healthy mix of maternal and medical perspectives. Each chapter by authors Diane and Lisa Berger that spell out life with a bipolar, young-adult child written... Read more

Published on July 19 2000

3.0 out of 5 stars Review of the Angels of Madness
This was a book by parents and I was not that used to that style. I was more used to the narrative style as in Patty Duke or Kay Jamison. Read more