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Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia | 
 enlarge | Authors: Pamela Spiro Wagner, Carolyn Spiro
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $1.00
You Save: $14.95 (94%)
New (41) Used (28) from $0.91
Avg. Customer Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 329858
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 0312320655
Dewey Decimal Number: 609
EAN: 9780312320652
ASIN: 0312320655
Publication Date: August 8, 2006
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Product Description
Growing up in the fifties, Carolyn Spiro was always in the shadow of her more intellectually dominant and social outgoing twin, Pamela. But as the twins approached adolescence, Pamela began to succumb to schizophrenia, hearing disembodied voices and eventually suffering many breakdowns and hospitalizations.
Divided Minds is a dual memoir of identical twins, one of whom faces a life sentence of schizophrenia, and the other who becomes a psychiatrist, after entering the spotlight that had for so long been focused on her sister. Told in the alternating voices of the sisters, Divided Minds is a heartbreaking account of the far reaches of madness, as well as the depths of ambivalence and love between twins. It is a true and unusually frank story of identical twins with very different identities and wildly different experiences of the world around them.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 Mesmerizing May 26, 2008
This book awakened & crystalized many feelings I've had about my own sister's tenuous mental health and the responsibility I've struggled with -- alternately accepting and rejecting my need to care for her and the burdens that go with it. I am awed by Carolyn's unconditional and unwaivering support of her sister as she walks the tightrope between non-attending psychiatrist and caring sister. I am awed by both sisters' candor and by Pam's willingness to share the tortuous details of her personal demons and their repercussions. Dealing with mental illness takes courage and a relentless will to keep trying. This book is inspirational.
 I Would Have Liked A Broader View February 15, 2008
How fascinating...identical twins; one with schizophrenia and the other a psychiatrist, how unusual. This is a memoir written by Carolyn and Pamela Spiro. Each describes what is was like to deal with Pamela's mental illness throughout their lives.
I expected amazing insights into how this horrible mental illness shaped both sister's lives but I finished this memoir feeling like there was so much left unsaid that I never got a clear image of what was going on in the Spiro family.
I felt like Carolyn and Pamela's honesty about their feelings toward each other was just beginning to emerge at the end of the book and then the book was finished.
I would have liked to have heard more about how the other family members dealt with their feelings toward Pamela's illness and how that effected Pamela. The rest of the family, their parents and two siblings, one who also becomes a psychiatrist, seemed to be almost completely left out of the book, which seemed awkward and strange to me. Their father barely speaks to Pamela for years and not much is said about it beyond that fact.
I was deeply saddened to follow the constant crisis of Pamela's existence, it was/is just horror after horror. The illness itself, the lack of consistent health care providers, the harsh and sometimes cruel treatment received from hospital staff, the side effects of the medications... It was all very sad.
Overall I felt like there was more left untold than told in this memoir and because of that it was not a satisfying reading experience for me.
Helped me understand my schizophrenic sister January 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Hi, I have a schizophrenic sister, and this book is about the best I've seen for getting the experience right. Quite amazing as it's written in alternating chapters by the schizophrenic sister and the saner one... An easy read too, and often a lot of fun actually (schizophrenia definitely has a hilarious side) tragic though it is...
Great book. September 9, 2007
This book reminded me of A Beautiful Mind, in that it helped me develop a deeper understanding of how somone with Schizophrenia might be feeling and how it is for families to have a member with this illness.
Journey into Madness.... February 17, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a very well written book that details the life of twin sisters as they suffer the life long disorder of schizophrenia. While only one is clinically affected by this disorder, the other twin suffers its affects as she tries to cope with a 'crazy' twin. As an undergraduate psychology major, I found this book to be a worthwhile read, as it not only shows the course of schizophrenia and the disorder's affects on family members, but it also proved to be an excellent perspective on the history of mental illness and treatment options in the United States.
Schizophrenia is a truly devestating disorder, so don't expect this to be a feel good kind of novel. However, it is an interesting read that provides a solid account of schizophrenia in an easy to understand style.
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