Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia (Hardcover)

by Patrick Tracey (Author)
Key Phrases: Patrick Tracey, Mary Egan, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
After describing the sudden onset of madness in one of his older sisters, followed two years later by his younger sister's, Tracey seeks to understand the legacy of schizophrenia that has haunted his family for generations, traced back to his great-great-grandmother Mary Egan, who emigrated from Ireland. His search takes him first to County Roscommon, the mythic center of Ireland, where he explores the Irish lore of fairies who, according to myth, capture minds from those who lose them. Tracey then travels to Dublin to consider more scientific explanations for schizophrenia, but even Dr. Dermot Walsh, who helped link the dysbindin gene to this mental state, cannot offer anything conclusive. He concludes his travels at Gleanna-a-Galt where he finds the legendary well his mother told him about when he was a child, a well said to make the mad whole again. In a symbolic gesture—at a loss for anything else he can do—he procures two bottles of the healing water for his sisters. While Tracey finds no conclusive answers, his book helps to dispel misconceptions about schizophrenia and reveals the various attempts by experts to make sense of this mental illness. (Sept.)
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From School Library Journal
This harrowing first memoir follows journalist Tracey's search for the roots of his family's "Irish madness," i.e., schizophrenia. As he traverses Ireland in a renovated camper, he visits sites that may have been cursed by the Druids, fairy mounds, and ancient shrines, trying to separate fact from fiction. He even interviews the Irish research team that first discovered the gene code for schizophrenia. Spared the disease himself, he records the anxiety his mother felt about having children and reveals his father's vain conviction, common in the 1940s and 1950s, that a stable household and good parenting would prevail over mental illness. Powerfully moving, Tracey's investigation will fascinate anyone interested in the mysteries of mental illness.—Elizabeth Brinkley
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (August 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553805258
• ISBN-13: 978-0553805253
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #212,992 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking Story, Wonderfully Written, September 3, 2008

By	M. Hertzler (East Coast USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am so thoroughly enjoying this book, even though my heart breaks on each page. Tracey has researched farther back than I could even fathom tracing my own family tree. His tales about his family are interesting and so well told that I can see the houses. I feel as if I know the great-grandmother, I can almost feel her pain.

He describes schizophrenia in words that I have never heard before. It has opened another level of understanding. The horror that is losing someone in the blink of an eye, having them replaced with a different person, is terrifying. I found myself checking my age versus the statistics, wondering if my own children are safe.

My heart goes out to him for all of his tragedy. But I do so appreciate his ability to put it into words and on paper for everyone to experience.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended read for health professionals!, September 3, 2008

By	Pei Tsao (Beth) (Mother Earth) - See all my reviews

I really hope the APA asks Mr. Tracey to speak at the next convention as this book is one of the best I've read about how mental illness impacts a family--the range of emotions from survivor's guilt to denial, anger and fear. Who will be next to fall from the family tree and how can we save them?

I prefer this memoir over the McCourt memoirs for its intellectual and introspective pursuit of knowledge via Irish history and science. I get the feeling that in another life, Mr. Tracey would be the scientist who unlocks the genetic code that solves the mystery.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "MADNESS DOESN'T JUST RUN IN OUR FAMILY - IT GALLOPS!", September 2, 2008

By	Rick Shaq Goldstein "Rick Shaq Goldstein" (Danville, Ca, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This is the heartbreaking story of Patrick Tracey's family history of schizophrenia. So many times when an introduction to a book review starts out saying its "heartbreaking", the ending of that sentence normally will also say "uplifting". Unfortunately that is not the case here... but in the place of uplifting... the story is definitely the next best thing... EDUCATIONAL. The author's Irish family on his Mother's side has been cursed with this dreaded disease. From his Great- Great Grandmother Mary Egan, to his Grandmother May Sweeney, to his Uncle Robbie, and to his two sweet and loving sisters, Chell and Austine. The reader will be taken on an educational and scenic trip from Boston to Ireland and back. The reader will... if not shed tears... will definitely feel pangs of sadness and dread in the gut of their soul... as names of victims become real to you... and you can feel the actual utter helplessness... that healthy family members... are reduced to. Along the way you will learn about the tragic speed in which this mind controlling, life-changing, dreaded, curse of a disease attacks.

"Schizophrenia is the hearing of voices, but the hallucinations can be seen, felt, and smelled as well as heard. It's fright night for life for many, an all-consuming terror that never ends." The author's healthy Grandmother, May Sweeney went out one day and came back late. Her husband was worried sick. When she came back to their house, he met her at the gate, "her slow grin says it all: every tooth has been wrenched from May's head - her gums a swollen and bloody mess." "What has become of your damn teeth?" "May it turns out, was nobody's victim. She had gladly paid for the dental surgery, she said, to stop the voices in her head. The voices had grown in power and strength until she could no longer bear them. The voices told her they would go, happily, if she would free them from her dental cavities. Whether extensions of her mind or enemies in her head, these strange voices lied, though; they were still chattering, her empty gums still bleeding, as May collapsed into my Grandfather's arms."

After schizophrenia attacks his Uncle and his two sisters, Patrick decides to depart on a trip to his ancestral homeland in Ireland, to try to trace down his family tree and investigate possible causes of his family's medical and mental dilemma. Along the way many myths are refuted. The author delves deep into the effects of the many famines in Ireland... he investigates the effects of alcohol... explores the mysterious and magical "fairy-caves"... and he visits the sights of old and new mental institutions... which held patients that not too long ago were openly called "LUNATICS". His investigative journey brings him upon a Dr. Dermot Walsh an epidemiologist "whose work, with Dr. Kenneth Kendler, led to the discovery of the first-ever schizophrenia-gene-link. Walsh reveals that questions of causes and cures still tax him. Despite his press, and all the excitement about the abnormality in the dysbindin gene, he is nonplussed. "Yes", he says of the gene marker, that's our discovery. But it's quite clear that its effect, like some other genes that have been discovered, is quite small and you will only get this effect in a small proportion of individuals. How it works and how it operates is another day's work. We don't know much about it."

"OF COURSE, IT'S NOT JUST GENES," HE SAYS. "THERE ARE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AS WELL - AGAIN, ABOUT WHICH WE KNOW VERY LITTLE - BUT WE HAVE SUSPICIONS ABOUT THIS OR THAT OR THE OTHER. BUT OVERALL, IT'S PROBABLY TRUE TO SAY THAT OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGINS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA IS STILL QUITE LIMITED."

There are a few "main" types of delusional schizophrenic characteristics; one of which is "religious-delusions." Patrick asked Walsh: "ONE OF MY SISTERS HAD IT IN HER HEAD THAT SHE WAS MARRYING JESUS. WOULD YOU KNOW WHY?' "NO, WE DON'T. WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WHY PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE THESE EXPERIENCES."

The author sadly summarizes: `THE FUTURE IS UNIMPRESSIVE, WE NOW CAN SAY. SCIENCE CAN LOOK BACK THIRTEEN BILLION YEARS TO THE BIRTH OF THE UNIVERSE, BUT IT STILL CAN'T HEAR THE VOICES IN MY SISTERS' HEADS. SOME THINGS TAKE MORE THAN A LIFETIME TO KNOW, AND IT MAY BE THAT I'LL NEVER LEARN THE NATURE OF THIS DARK THING THAT MUGS US."

At the time of the publishing of this book there are 35-40,000 schizophrenics in Ireland and approximately 2.4 million American adults, or about 1.1 percent of the population age 18 and older in a given year, that have schizophrenia. After reading this book... I will never look at one of those poor tortured souls... talking to themselves on a street corner... in the same way again.