A review by bkish
No One Cares about Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America by Ron Powers

3.0

This is a difficult book to review for me. The subject is up my alley and always of interest to me for various reasons. What didnt work for me here was the two pronged approach to the subject. Ron Powers for some reason I dont know has two sons diagnosed as schizophrenic and one with schizo-affective disorder and one son suicided. That is tragic all of it. The extent to which he and his wife a scientist had to go to support their boys is huge. I felt exhausted just reading about it.
As he talked about them and their lives and the ways he supported them I was very interested
What did not work for me was when Ron Powers put on the hat of a psychiatrist researcher writing about medications and different events within the psych community as he traced history of mental illness particularly as it relates to schizophrenia which can be confused w bipolar disorder.
I have nothing to say about him as a dad dealing with a horrendous family situation that was repeated. I will say that he never gave up on his boys and it seems that was the most important part of his life.
This book would have been way more readable by many if he simplified his mission.

Judy