National Alliance on Mental Illness
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NAMI Bookshelf: October 2009
Editors note: Click the book title to order the book from Amazon.com and NAMI will receive a portion of the proceeds.
In Her Wake: A Child Psychiatrist Explores the Mystery of Her Mother's Suicide
by Nancy Rappaport, Basic Books (2009)
Combining family research with psychoanalytic research, the author, a child psychiatrist, attempts to unravel her mother's decision to take her own life following a bitter divorce and loss of custody of her children.
The book is a study of decisions and consequences, mental illness, and personal introspection. The impact of tragedy intensifies the author's devotion to her own children.
Deep Brain Stimulation: A New Treatment Shows Promise in the Most Difficult Cases
by by Jamie Talan, Dana Press (2009)
The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives recommends this book. It discusses potential treatment of Parkinson's disease, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, Tourette's syndrome and epilepsy as well as ethical issues.
DBS involves implanting electrodes in the brain attached to a battery in the chest and emits low-voltage electric currents.
NAMI does not endorse or promote specific courses of treatment, but the book does provide an excellent case study of how science advances from "laboratory bench to bedside," through missteps and failures.
It includes description of actual cases and messages of "hope and caution."