Schizophrenia and Manic-Depressive Disorder

by E. Fuller Torrey, Ann E. Bowler, Edward H Taylor

An important contribution to the ongoing debate over the origins of mental illness, this book is based on the largest study ever of identical twins in which one was ill and the other not. The book provides compelling evidence that both schizophrenia and manic-depressive disorder are biologically based diseases of the brain, unrelated to psychological influences.

Genres: Mental Health, Mental Illness, Psychology, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[William Schram · Rating 2 out of 5]

First I will talk about the main problem with this book; it was written in 1994. This is the main problem. It's all well and good to talk about the biological basis of mental illness, but the authors even state in the book that not all of the data was analyzed completely. So they jumped the gun to get a word in I suppose.

So the study covers sixty-six(66) pairs of twins and how they developed the symptoms and whether or not both of the twins got the mental illness. With charts and graphs it statistically analyzes the illness.

The other problem can be inferred from the date of publication. This book is 22 years old. It is legally old enough to vote and drink alcohol in all 50 States and maybe even in other countries. Now that might not be a problem if the study was static or something, but in the field of Genetics and Schizophrenia? It was moving so fast back then already. The Human Genome Project was still running. Bill Clinton was President. That stuff is crazy old.

Dropped due to all of this, and it just didn't capture my attention. Two out of five.

[Neena Holzman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book seemed to be potentially interesting. However, if you are looking for a book explaining the history/science (what is known of it at least) of either disorder, this really isn't the book for you. I read this for a research paper and DID find it interesting. However, I also found it a bit unhelpful. It's essentially a kallgilion page case study where each conclusion is...unconclusive and ultimately arbitrary. Since so little is known about the origins of either disease, these studies helped me very little when trying to understand anything, really. That being said, if i was not writing a paper and I just wanted to learn about the scientific process I would have probably loved this book.