Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania (Hardcover)

by Andy Behrman (Author) "I could tell you that I had the most unhappy childhood of anyone I know, but that wouldn't be true..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Kostabi World, Upper West Side (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Put sex, drugs, art forgeries, and manic depression into a blender, run it at top speed for 10 minutes, and out pops Electroboy, Andy Behrman's high-octane autobiography. The story begins as an exhilarating view into the manic's world, with spontaneous flights to Tokyo, sketchy East Village bars, and a nonstop inner dialogue that makes your pulse race just to keep up. The remainder of the book slows down considerably, starting with Behrman's New Jersey childhood and winding through a successful education, a rapid accumulation of debts, a forged painting scam that lands him in prison, and finally a series of electroshock treatments that allow him to find some balance in life at last.

Between titillating tales of stripping for extra cash and excessive drug use, Behrman charts his experiences with therapists and a wide variety of prescription medications. No clear picture is presented of his attempts at counseling; there is much skipping around between therapists, from whom he manages to hide the extent of his difficulties. In his first experience with Prozac, he doubles his original dose "to speed up" and later fires his psychiatrist for "medicating him like an absolute lunatic." This tale alone makes his doctors come across as more sympathetic characters than Behrman might have intended. Like many confessional memoirs, Electroboy is a blunt tale that relies heavily on the shock value of his über-yuppie behavior, which ends up detracting from the potentially fascinating story of his illness. --Jill Lightner

From Publishers Weekly
Personal accounts of mental illness can provide insight into the mind's complexities not only for the public but for specialists seeking better treatments for their patients. Freud's theory of paranoia, for example, was richly informed by his reading of Dr. Daniel Paul Schreber's Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. But in Behrman's account, it's unclear whether the author's descriptions of his psychological struggles are intended to clarify his experience of illness or to exploit the sensationalistic aspects of his manic depression (drug binges, sexual escapades and treatment with electroshock therapy) for fun and profit. The crux of Behrman's narrative involves his work as the publicist for pop artist Mark Kostabi. After helping Kostabi achieve fame, Behrman, along with an artist in Kostabi's studio, conspired to make and sell "fake" Kostabis an endeavor that culminated in the author's arrest and conviction for conspiracy to defraud. Although Behrman never discusses the relationship between his crime and his mental illness, the reader can deduce that the fraud was tied to his long history of deeds demonstrating tension between a desire to be loved and a desire to be guilty and punished (Behrman also worked as a prostitute and amassed significant debts). His prose suffers from an abundance of clinical editorializations and attention to the superficial, like brands of clothing and beer. This last offense gives the text its exhibitionistic, gossip-column style, which muffles the obviously tortuous aspects of the author's bouts with manic euphoria and paralytic depression. The genuine and compelling aspects of Behrman's disorder become subservient to the unfortunate but undeniable pleasures of schadenfreude. Agent, Suzanne Gluck. (On-sale Feb. 19)

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Random House (February 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375503587
• ISBN-13: 978-0375503580
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #861,886 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Manic Explosion, August 2, 2004

By	Melissa Solomon (Victoria, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania (Paperback)

Sometimes, being a therapist, you forget what real true mania looks like because you don't get to see it too often. Granted, you see some hypomania, but you don't see the graphicness of true mania: $20,000 Barney's shopping sprees, prostitution, 3 a.m. random travel to wherever, or lying, cheating, and stealing without fear of getting caught. Reading this book was like watching a horrible TV special on fast-forward (horrible because it made you feel uncomfortable for Behrman and also for the people he knew, not because it was written poorly). I read paragraphs out loud to other therapists and they told me to stop because they couldn't follow what he was talking about. I sat and shook my head, thinking, "You did WHAT?" I definitely suggest this book to anyone who is interested in knowing what a full-blown manic episode looks like and all the possible ways that the psychiatric community can deal with it

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A manic memoir, but not "a memoir of mania", April 12, 2002

By	D. Cloyce Smith (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Ostensibly a book about one man's bout with manic depression, this memoir chronicles Behrman's dizzying journey from part-time male hustler / full-time white-collar professional to convicted felon for art forgery. This period of his life is filled with sexual confusion, financial worries, unrealizable ambitions, stunning successes, equally spectacular failures, compulsive shopping, substance abuse, frenzied traveling, selfish stunts, generous acts, and ridiculously long work hours.

And that's the problem with this book. Although Behrman describes the events leading up to his conviction and therapy, you never get a sense of how his behavior or his actions stem from his illness. I do not mean do imply that the author is not manic-depressive; rather he fails to convey how his experience is any different from your average Wall Street broker, celebrity, advertising director, crystal meth addict, bartender, alcoholic, or Enron executive--or, for that matter, just about any young male living in New York City. After finishing this book, I still have absolutely no idea what it's like to be manic-depressive.

Indeed, the book at time seems more an autobiography of addiction than "a memoir of mania." Although one psychologist suggests substance abuse is a common symptom of manic depression, it`s a marvel that no psychologist or psychiatrist, at least according to the author, speculates at any time that addiction may be the root of Behrman's problems. By his own account, he is continuously and excessively drinking, snorting cocaine, freebasing, and abusing the many prescriptions his doctors supply to him. The author even compares the sensations caused by electroshock therapy to the enjoyment of "everything I liked to abuse--alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, sex," and his full recovery occurs only when he finally stops drinking and using drugs.

Reading his confessions, any sensible reader is going to waver among the four reactions that appear in other reviews on this Web site and elsewhere: (1) Behrman may well be manic-depressive; (2) the diagnosis of manic depression could be as wrong as the previous diagnoses supplied to him by a number of respected psychologists and psychiatrists; (3) the author may have accepted this particular diagnosis because it provided him with an excuse for his irresponsible and embarrassing behavior; or (4) he misses the limelight so much that he has pulled off yet another stunt by publishing this book. Behrman's account doesn't really persuade the reader which of the possibilities should be believed.

And then there's his writing style. The fragmented, journalistic staccato may have been meant to be "manic," but instead it's just tedious. While many of the situations Behrman gets himself into are actually quite funny or tense, the prose overall is astonishingly flat and without any sense of wit or suspense. The exception is the retelling of his first electroshock treatments, when the memoir becomes, at long last, surprisingly humorous and affecting. But, for the reader, it's an awfully long haul to the payoff of those few pages.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It made me accept myself..., October 30, 2002

By	Karen Renken (Long Island, N.Y.) - See all my reviews

From the perspective of having suffered with manic-depressive illness for twenty-seven years I had great interest in reading, Electroboy: A Memior of Mania. I had read every autobiographical account that I could get my hands on. No other work that I had read affected me as deeply as Andy Behrman's book.
I devoured Electroboy in four hours. I became hypo-manic when I read it. Other accounts of the disease that I have read DESCRIBE the mood swings that one experiences having the disease, Andy Behrman makes you FEEL his highs and lows along with him. Andy Behrman's brutal honesty about his manic behaviors helped me to understand my own. I know longer feel the shame that I once felt and have achieved a self accetance that I never had before through his writing. My whole life I felt that I was speaking a language that no one understood. After reading Electroboy I felt understood. Andy Behrman understood me. The best part that a family member read the book and told me that after reading Electroboy she finally understood my illness after all these years. That understanding is a major accomplishment for which I would like to thank Andy Behrman for. When I got to the last chapter entitled Bodega Roses I did not know that it was the last. But through his words I sensed it and cried. I cried because it was over and I did not want it to end. In summary Andy Behrman's writing style is quick-witted and heart warming. It is a memior that in my eyes is the anthem for those who suffer from this serious disease and a helpful tool for family, friends and loved ones who live with those afflicted.