Customer Reviews

The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

John Gartner's unique new book is a tour de force It is a page turner which I could not put down. Dr. Gartner brings to life men from each of America's five centuries as he interweaves his story of how genetically driven mood alteration altered America. Hypomania is a form of bipolar disorder that gave these men the restless energy, incessant sleepless speech and work capacities that made them world altering giants, but also the impulsivity, reckless speech, and, with most, delusional excesses which sowed the seeds of their ultimate personal decline. The book reads like a novel but cites an impressive array of sources in over 800 footnotes to document his thesis that America is a nation of immigrants who come here because of their bipolar genes. This "immigrant drive" made America a leader in business, the arts, science, religion and finance, and Dr. Gartner demonstrates how with literary skill and clincal accuracy.

He writes of the supreme accomplishments and pathological excesses of Christopher Columbus, 17th century religious leaders, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Carnagie, the Hollywood Selznicks and Mayers, and the discoverer of the human genome Craig Venter. In each chapter Dr. Gartner gives the reader the background history, and sociological and technological information necessary to highlight the significance of the person's achievment. He uses written sources, but also has impressively and extensively interviewed biographers, colleagues, decendents, and
Dr. Venter himself, making the stories The Hypomanic Edge with information, surprises, humor, and compassion.

As a practicing psychoanalyst and psychiatrist I was very impressed with the scientific quality of the book, but having shared the book with several members of my family, I can attest that the the non-professional reader will find the book equally compelling.

I am a former patient of Dr. Gartner and a mentalhealth professional as well. In reading his book and then reading some of the reviews( especially the NY Times interview) I began to wonder if we were all reading the same book. I found the book to be entetaining, funny and astoundly accurate. I have treated many patients who are exactly as John describes in his book. I my self have or have had most of the characteristics described in "the Hypomanic Edge". When I spoke with Dr. Gartner last week he asked me what I thought, I told him you "got it right!". I have long held the view that most of the written material in field is just recycled trivia, completely useless. This book is ground breaking and we need more of John Gartner and less of Dr. Phil and his ilk who write books that are more Jacquline Susan and about as usefull as the novel "Love Story".
Psychodoc

Carrie Fisher, in addition to acting, is the author of acclaimed novels, and is a highly respected "script doctor." She is also bipolar, and has commented, "It's not all bad. The manic end is a lot of fun... just fantastic."

Dr. Gartner argues that mania and hypomania - the "manic end" of the mood spectrum - are radically different. He acknowledges that mania "is a severe illness... Manic episodes almost always end in hospitalization. People who are highly energized, and also in most cases psychotic, do bizarre things that are dangerous, frightening, and disruptive."

In the book, he gives clear explanations based on his clinical experience, plus stories of accomplished people which support the main theme of the book: that many, perhaps most, successful entrepreneurs and businesspeople are hypomanic.

It is easy to find many examples of leaders in business and the arts who show the typical range of traits: "filled with energy... flooded with ideas... driven, restless, and unable to keep still... often works on little sleep... feels brilliant, special, chosen, perhaps even destined to change the world... can be euphoric... is a risk taker..."

It is helpful to understand these qualities are not necessarily pathological, but positive qualities that talented people can use for success.

I'm noticing in the "Self-Help" or "Motivational" genre of books, a lot of them basically describe various types of personalities through rose-colored glasses. Readers then love these books, because they see themselves described in these books in a sympathetic, ego-boosting light. For instance, a lot of unorganized people who fancy themselves to be misunderstood or misguided geniuses or entrepenuers will read this book and say "Oh, this is me -- I'm destined for greatness, just like these people. I'm the one-in-a-million." The books essentially succeed through flattery, but have unfortunate negative consequence of perpetuating people's self-delusion. In reality, 9 out of 10 successful people have aquired some sort of marketable skill, be it nursing or hair-cutting or accounting or masonry or whatever, and then live their lives in a disciplined, planned-out manner. This isn't to say that these authors intentionally flatter readers to sell books -- it's just that books that do somehow flatter readers naturally become popular. So ask yourself -- are you drawn to this book because it reinforces your own self-delusion?

If you are wondering whether you should buy this book based on a desire to learn about hypomanics - Buy it! The time you invest in reading this book is nicely hedged. At worst, you will get a series of well-written biographies of extremely interesting people. More likely, you also will learn the mind of the hypomanic. At best, someone you care a lot about may be much better understood, and this someone may be yourself.

The concept of the book gets five stars. The stories that compose the biographies are told very well, but only very well, which is what drops the review to four stars.

If you are truly hypomanic, I'm sure you will rate it 7 stars!

Don't be misled by the cursory dismissals contained in some of the "professional" reviews. I am a psychologist and I know Gartner. This is the most interesting psychology book that I have read in quite a few years. However, that is not saying much as most psychology books are uninspiring. Whether you agree with him or not (I'm not sure that I do) it is an interesting read and a well thought out presentation. If you are going to disagree with him, you will have to work at it. The link between genius and craziness has been discussed before and is not the most interesting part of this book. What is useful is the examination and documentation of the lives he chose to illustrate his thesis. More important are the implications for managing creativity and ambition. Gartner's examples are of those whose success contains the seeds of their downfall. Those of us in the field know many whose "inspired imagination" and "unrelenting drive" routinely insure that any measure of success will elude them.

It strikes me that there are two really interesting forms of writing in psychology; one that analyzes complex ideas in complex language, and one that breaks down complex ideas in simple language. Both have their place, yet neither is easy to pull off successfully. Gartner has captured the latter form of writing quite handily in The Hypomanic Edge. His central thesis, that a hypomanic character is actually a desirable way of being, is at once counterintuitive from prevailing cultural logic, and simultaneously one of those ideas that, in retrospect, seems so obviously true and useful that it's hard to imagine why we didn't think of it before. The intellectual clarity of Gartner's opening and closing chapters, coupled with the biographically and psychologically rich middle chapters on several important entrepreneurial figures through the centuries, makes for an enlightening and eminently readable book. Gartner has managed to generate a fresh angle on well-trodden clinical and historical ground. This in itself is quite noteworthy and refreshing, and I'm sure the book will be rewarding to most who open it.

A warning about this book first; when I got it in the mail I had other work planned that evening but once I started reading I couldn't stop until the end. It's well written and entertaining but most importantly thought provoking. Rigorous science it is not and I can't comment on the historical biographies as my field is medicine, not history.

John Gartner makes a compelling case for immigrant populations being enriched in people who have bipolar traits. Given a sufficient number of them in the population, and you get places like America, Australia and Canada whose populations are almost entirely made up of immigrants. America seems to have a critical mass of bipolars which makes it even more attractive to other bipolars and, in John Gartner's view, one ends up with the positive feedback loops of energetic people making things happen at a far greater rate than anywhere else in the world. This also explains many of the down sides to America as bipolarity also has a depressive side and bipolars can be very impulsive.

Obviously this book only looks at one aspect of what makes America unique but I've found it very thought provoking. Many of John Gartner's assertions are important scientific questions that need to be answered through proper controlled studies. I had been toying with some of the same ideas over the years, but John Gartner put them all together in this book.

This book is groundbreaking. Have you heard of any other psychiatrist or psychologist write a history book?

I'd like Ted Turner to be added to the next book, if there is to be a sequel. Although I am reading Turner's autobiography now, 'Call me Ted', and he disappointedly says half way through the book that he took lithium for two years but his next psychiatrist dropped the lithium and he does not believe he has bipolar disorder, if you read his book and you have bipolar disorder, you *know* Ted has bipolar disorder. It takes one to know one. Failing having bipolar disorder yourself, in this case of Dr Gartner, it takes being an experienced psychiatrist to know one.

I hope Ted Turner has read Gartner's book. Perhaps then he'll realize he has a fortunate case. Certainly, bipolar disorder is not a one size fits all experience.

And that is what the critics -- I have only read one critic in these reviews by the way -- don't understand. That mental illness has a variety of manifestations on how it is experience, and how bad a case, or fortunate in these cases I suppose, it is.

The ability to be intuitive beyond the norm is really the most valuable side effect of having bipolar disorder, in my opinion. Creativity? Sure. But the intuition and the drive to follow up on that intuition is the how someone like Ted Turner (and the dozen or so people Gartner diagnoses in his book, can be a visionary 30 years out, without resorting to marketing research studies (which probably are not visionary 30 years out.)

Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

This is one of the only books that is devoted to this fuzzy area of psychiatry, discussing a diagnosis that is often misdiagnosed. Unfortunately it has been so by a recent reviewer who gave it one star...You've been "clinically diagnosed" wrong if you were diagnosed with hypomania - as a hypomanic I can say that your description of what you've done to yourself in your life would not be a result of hypomania. Find a new psychiatrist who will treat you properly. Best of luck.