Exceeding everyone’s expectations, Carolyn graduated from Harvard Medical School and forged a successful career in psychiatry.ĭespite Pamela’s estrangement from the rest of her family, the sisters remained very close, “bonded with the twin glue,” calling each other several times a week and visiting as frequently as possible. Pamela’s illness allowed Carolyn to enter the spotlight that had for so long been focused on her sister. But as the twins approached adolescence, Pamela began to suffer the initial symptoms of schizophrenia, hearing disembodied voices that haunted her for years and culminated during her freshman year of college at Brown University where she had her first major breakdown and hospitalization. Growing up in the fifties, Carolyn Spiro was always in the shadow of her more intellectually dominant and socially outgoing twin, Pamela. I just learned that Carolyn passed away in 2019, however at one point in the book Carolyn states "I know the statistics, I'll probably outlive her (Pam)" and that made me sad.A riveting true story of sisters who were identical, until the voices began And I come close to relinquishing life altogether in my compulsion -governed by the command hallucinations of the hazmat man- to burn myself alive to atone for imaginary crimes." "In catatonia, I abdicate living -not by choice, it's true- but nevertheless I am for that time effectively lifeless. Small, terrifying, and constricted as this world is, it's been all I know" I've been literally in a world of my own.
An everlasting present that has no connection to anything or anyone. How psychosis completely alters a person's life.Īfter getting better on ECT sessions, Pam says "I've lived inside the nightmarish fragments of a time and country beyond understanding. The book gave me perspective on the exhaustion and helplessness that comes with frequent hospitalizations and ineffective medications. I felt appalled at how alone she was! Terrible families exist all over the world, but in the east they're a lot more tight-knit and nobody would be left alone like that, especially when they have such an illness that makes them a risk for themselves.
I felt a lot during this book, I felt dread when Pam detailed her hallucinations (especially the commanding ones), I felt shock when they described "oddities" in Pam's behavior as a teen which in retrospect could've been prodromal symptoms of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is scary enough of a mental disorder nowadays, just imagine what it was like in 60s and 70s. I'm on the hunt for memoirs on schizophrenia, there is scarcity on the subject so I couldn't believe my luck when I found this book about the unique perspective of twins!
0 kommentar(er)
