The Years of Silence Are Past: My Father's Life with Bipolar Disorder [Hardcover]

Stephen P. Hinshaw (Author), Kay Redfield Jamison (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2002

This work presents the life history of a philosopher who experienced severe, recurrent, and misdiagnosed mental disorder. The compelling narrative portrays the father's seventy-five years: his childhood and adolescence, his high levels of achievement, intermixed with recurrent episodes and brutal hospitalizations, his marriage and family life, his tenderness as a father, and his gradual decline following years of maltreated bipolar disorder. Themes of self-image, resilience, causes of serious mental disorder, accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment, and linkages between social context and mental disturbance are intermixed with the narrative. Alternately harrowing and uplifting, this work captures the experience of growing up in a family with severe mental illness as well as the courage and dignity that can emanate from mental disorder. This poignant work will be of strong interest to the public at large and to those in the mental health fields.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Academic psychologist Hinshaw has skillfully woven both autobiography and biography into this moving and instructive account of his father's mental illness. The book opens with several endearing photographs of his father, from youth to parenthood. But the photos don't reveal the pain: while in the 12th grade in 1936, Hinshaw's father, Virgil (or Junior, as he's called), had jumped off his family's roof in a crazed attempt to save the world. After almost a year of starving himself in a county institution, Junior rebounded to attend Stanford, the University of Iowa and Princeton. Readers then see him living two lives, one full of achievements-meeting with Albert Einstein, working as a philosophy professor at Ohio State, forming a lasting marriage and fathering two children-and the other full of unexpected moments of profound depression and sometimes delusion, which lead him, misdiagnosed, to institutionalization. Sheltered from this family secret until his college days, Hinshaw explains how the silence from his father's absences hung in the air like a toxin. After his father finally shared his suffering with his son, they began years of healing talks about the disorder. Throughout this tender narrative, readers learn about the symptoms that distinguish bipolar disorder from schizophrenia, as well as its possible causes and treatments. Hinshaw's work offers an in-depth look at this illness while celebrating the resilience of a man facing a world of extremes.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Stephen P. Hinshaw has done a courageous thing in writing The Years of Silence are Past. By revealing his father's struggle with mental illness, he has created a kind of mirror in which many will be able to see their own lives and the lives of their loved ones." - Joe Taleroski

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 252 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (October 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521817803
• ISBN-13: 978-0521817806
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #900,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get This Book for Everyone You Know, November 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Years of Silence Are Past: My Father's Life with Bipolar Disorder (Hardcover)

This is one of the best books on any topic I have read lately. Anyone who knows anyone with a psychological problem (that's all of you with a pulse, by the way), should read The Years of Silence are Past. The title refers to the silence that descended on Stephen Hinshaw's family in the face of his father's bipolar illness (manic-depression). The book is so resonant because countless families with a mentally ill family member live with the same deafening silence. Hinshaw manages to tell the story of his father's battle with bipolar disorder in a compelling, compassionate, unflinching way while also communicating clearly and thus educating about this devastating illness. This book puts a human face on a problem that is too often still stigmatized in our society. I hope this book will help put an end to the collective silence that amplifies the stigma and associated pain for people with mental illness and their famlies. I also hope it leads people with mental illness to seek and benefit from treatment.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling biography in the context of society's larger story, April 19, 2005

By 

Gina Pera "Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?, a... (San Francisco Bay Area, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Years of Silence Are Past: My Father's Life with Bipolar Disorder (Hardcover)

As the other reviews here accurately explain, this slim volume encompasses much more than an insightful look at how his father's long-misdiagnosed mental illness affected the author and his family. That would be quite enough.

Yet, while some scholarly writers have one idea and puff it out in volume after volume, Dr. Hinshaw deftly delivers much more than the title suggests, weaving autobiography and biography, this country's checkered history in diagnosing and treating bi-polar disorder, the genetic and environmental factors of brain disorders, personal insights and scientific data, and much more.

That Dr. Hinshaw pulls this off so cogently and compellingly for the layperson strikes me as remarkable, given that he is a highly respected academic, clinical scientist, and professor who chairs the prestigious department of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

As a lay volunteer in the AD/HD community, I first learned of Dr. Hinshaw through his contributions to a landmark study on ADHD in children. In my experience, it is rare to find a psychologist who can help the average person bridge the knowledge gap between behavior and neuroscience, and I am grateful for this window to understanding.

This is the first in Dr. Hinshaw's outstanding trilogy examining stigma around mental illness--and how our society might go about easing it. The other two books are The Mark of Shame: Stigma of Mental Illness and an Agenda for Change and Breaking the Silence: Mental Health Professionals Disclose Their Personal and Family Experiences of Mental Illness

Gina Pera

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare portrait of human development, May 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Years of Silence Are Past: My Father's Life with Bipolar Disorder (Hardcover)

Stephen Hinshaw demonstrated exceptional courage and scholarship in this passionately written portrayal of his father's struggle with bipolar disorder. Blending scientific perspectives with personal insights, Hinshaw provides a tour of his father's obstacles and triumphs. It is a compelling story about the far reaching implications of severe psychopathology yet it is firmly rooted in inspiring messages of hope and resilience. Hinshaw somehow manages to find the appropriate "voice" with personal accounts narrated within a larger context of science, philosophy, and public policy. It is exemplary in its passion, analysis, and vision for the future.