WHISPERS: The Voices of Paranoia [Paperback]

Ronald K. Siegel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 1996

Combining the insights of a gifted research scientist with vivid tales that are usually the realm of the novelist, Dr. Ronald Siegel lets his readers experience the suspicion, terror, and rage that possess the mind of the paranoid. This is the first book to investigate the actual experience of paranoia and to demonstrate that under the right conditions - drugs or deprivation, for example - anyone can be driven into that state. And indeed, eight million Americans already have been. The paranoid inhabits a different realm of being, one that tilts the world ever so slightly. The senses detect these differences and sound mental alarms. Delusions and hallucinations feed on each other, flourishing with amazing speed. The paranoid becomes locked in a new mode of thinking - viewing life as from a cell. In a dozen case studies, Dr. Siegel follows his patients into the shadow lands where paranoia flourishes - drug addiction, prison, organized crime, and terrorism. He introduces us to mild cases where there is only a vague sense that something is out there stalking, to those with apocalyptic visions so intense that they shake the foundations of an entire community. We meet the old woman who hears her teeth whispering, the beautiful ballet dancer who falls in love with a shadow, and the cocaine addict for whom the invasion of imaginary bugs was strong enough to kill. This intrepid journey through the mind's dark corridors ends with a reflective coda exploring the suicide of Ernest Hemingway, and there is no better guide than Dr. Ronald Siegel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pharmacologist Siegel brilliantly explores the mind of the paranoid in this chilling, wholly engrossing report. His 12 case studies include a cocaine-addicted ballet dancer who murders a coke dealer after developing an erotic fixation on him, an aerospace inventor who believes his enemies have launched a satellite to transmit messages into his brain, a laid-off insurance salesman-turned-God's-prophet, and a frail octogenarian convinced that her dentist has implanted a spying device in her "whispering" teeth. Siegel ( Intoxication ), a UCLA research professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, begins by analyzing Hitler's paranoid hatred of Jews, made more virulent, the author believes, by amphetamine addiction. Next we meet a paranoid neo-Nazi graduate student at UCLA, who created a crude computer program to simulate Hitler's mind. Siegel closes with a look at Ernest Hemingway's paranoid final year, which culminated with his suicide. This startling survey suggests there is a continuum of paranoia and that paranoid episodes can be triggered by drugs, thyroid disorders, pernicious anemia or psychological traumas such as false arrest, social isolation or an intensely humiliating episode.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This book offers a compelling series of vignettes depicting experiences of paranoia. By providing an explanatory connection between his subjects' past histories, personalities, and present experiences, Siegel creates a believable setting for the dramatic events, thoughts of persecution, and feelings of panic or terror that play out in the lives of the paranoid. Many of the cases reveal drug abuse or drug intoxication at their centers. Nevertheless, each has its own merits. The author's investigation of the facts and his vivid descriptions are skillfully recorded, as is his narration of his own paranoid experience. For most general collections.
Bonnie Hoffman, Stony Brook, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 9, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684802856
• ISBN-13: 978-0684802855
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #672,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful insight into the mind of the paranoid person., August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: WHISPERS: The Voices of Paranoia (Paperback)

I found this book sad, illuminating and fascinating. The author takes you on a journey through several different delusions and gives very good background information and, at times, links this background to the present. It is a good opportunity to more fully understand the psychotic process and delusional system that tortures many mentally ill persons. As a psychiatric nurse, it gave me a deeper understanding as to what my patients are going through.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Journey Into Paranoia, October 28, 2001

By 

Robert H. Pietrzak - See all my reviews

This review is from: WHISPERS: The Voices of Paranoia (Paperback)

"Whispers: The Voices of Paranoia" is hands-down one of the best books that I have ever read. Dr. Ronald Siegel, Ph.D., a forensic psychopharmacologist, is an incredible writer and an even better story-teller. His journey into the paranoid mind is enlightening, vivid, and dangerous. As Dr. Siegel unfolds each case study, the reader is thrown into the suspense, analyzing and foreshadowing the devious behavioral manifestations of the paranoid mind. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in psychiatry, clinical neuropsychology, forensic psychology, or simply a good, non-fiction suspense trip.

You will finish this book in less than a week. I simply could not put it down and have since gone on to order all of Dr. Siegel's books.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars legal student's view of book, December 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: WHISPERS: The Voices of Paranoia (Paperback)

I bought the book whispers while casually shopping in a local bookstore earlier this year. I was at that time, in a class taught by a recent graduate in psychiatry. She made the concepts of basic human behavior interesting and challenging. As most would suspect, the mental state and motivation of people is important in law. Dr. Siegel, in his analysis of criminally insane patients, is fascinating reading for anyone. His status as a resreach scientist allowed him to closely examine patients with mental abnormalities. I could not put the book down until it was completely finished. Dr. siegel presents his cases in terms that laymen can understand. The book is concise, contains some adventure, and is somewhat humorous at times. I will read it again undoubtedly. I would reccomend this book to anyone who has a friend or relative suffering from mental disorders or substance abuse issues. I would also reccomend law enforcement officers to read the book in order to understand the condition of mentally ill people they often encounter in their daily work. I am looking for Dr. Siegel's other books. whispers was a true delight.