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This was, I think, my first book tackling one of the most mysterious diseases, schizophrenia. Mr Kolker explains the ways it was treated in the past in a most accessible way, at least I, not belonging to a medical profession, understood most of it, which does not mean I remembered everything as there is a lot of information, including names of the doctors and those of the medicaments.
Mr Kolker took a sad history of one American family, the Galvins, living in Colorado, as the background for his informative non-fiction. Mimi and Don Galvin had twelve children, and six of them, boys, developed schizophrenia as they grew up. These unusual cases, six male siblings suffering from this medical condition, allowed doctors to do research into the reasons behind schizophrenia which provided a better understanding of it.
What made this story sad for me was not only the cases of this terrible disease, but also other forms of abuse and neglect which were hard to read about.
All in all, this is not a book that puts a reader in an upbeat mood, but it is definitely worth the read. It is written clearly and gives a broad picture of ways to define and cure a disease which terrifies us.
PS The Gavins seem to be a big family, but last year I watched some news on a Polish family consisting of 21 children (2018) plus parents.