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9780525562641
Overview
Overview
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR
ONE OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE'S #1 BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, TIME, Slate, Smithsonian, The New York Post, and Amazon The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?
What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.
With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR
ONE OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE'S #1 BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, TIME, Slate, Smithsonian, The New York Post, and Amazon The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?
What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.
With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.
- Format: TradePaperback
- Author: Kolker, Robert
- ISBN: 9780525562641
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 7.90 x 0.90
- Number Of Pages: 400
- Publication Year: 2021
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Navigating Family Dynamics and Treatment With Schizophrenia
Audrey O. - 5 years 6 months agoFascinating reportage of mental health in an all-American family of the 60s. I've been recommending this book to all my bibliophiles! #SpringPicks
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The title, Hidden Valley Road, comes from the location of the Galvin home and is used to identify the family home throughout the book.
Madeline Z. - 6 years 5 months agoHidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker. Fascinating nonfiction read that chronicles the history of the Galvin family which consisted of 10 sons and 2 daughters. 6 of the sons were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Some of the others had some mental challenges as well; all were profoundly affected by growing up with so much dysfunction. The subtitle, Inside the Mind of an American Family, would seem to convey that this family is average American, but there is nothing average about this family. Because they grew up in the 50's and 60's, not much was known about this mental disease, and the treatment of the Galvin males was as much an experiment as an attempt to minimize their symptoms. The book gives a very in depth account of the challenges of diagnosis and treatment throughout the years and into the present time. I found it enlightening and compelling. Schizophrenia was a mystery to me before, and this book has helped me understand it better. It was well worth reading for me. It discusses in depth the nature/nurture theories, and adds in the possible/probable triggering mechanism of teens dabbling in drugs. Gaining insights into the minds of those with schizophrenia is challenging to say the least. I liked that it is written in an easy to follow narrative style, and that it is written for the average person to be able to comprehend. I definitely recommend it.