Hidden Valley Road

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

If you like "Hidden Valley Road," you'll love "Bitter Medicine," and vice versa. ------------------- How a family's Greek tragedy-level suffering guides its members onto different life paths, destroyed, transformed, repaired... and how it provides an exceptional opportunity for medical research, lighting a glimmer of hope for all patient families. · A stirring journey of medical exploration, a moving story of a family's struggle against fate. —Oprah Winfrey · 【Synopsis】 To outsiders, the Galvin family of Colorado Springs, USA, was a perfect middle-class family: Don, the enthusiastic husband, was a confident Air Force Academy officer, and Mimi, his wife, was a debutante from an upper-class Texas family. They also had 12 lovely children. But beneath this superficial gloss, a force the couple couldn't comprehend was stirring. In just ten years, six of their twelve children successively developed severe schizophrenia, while the other six waited in fear, dreading their turn, anticipating more pain and suffering. For over half a century, madness, humiliation, and violence never spared this family; self-harm and murder were far from the only shadows looming over them. Based on interviews with all living individuals involved and extensive medical archives, author Robert Kolker compassionately and empathetically narrates the entire process of schizophrenia devouring this family. While enduring endless suffering, this extraordinary family also offered a glimmer of hope for discovering the causes and treatments of schizophrenia. Using the Galvin family's story as a thread, Kolker meticulously untangles and interweaves the medical community's views and debates on the causes of schizophrenia over the past century, the evolution of treatment methods for the disease, and societal prejudice and discrimination against schizophrenic patients and their families. From the divergence and schism between Freud and Jung, to an entire generation of therapists blaming "schizophrenogenic mothers" for the disease, from theorists abandoning the concept of illness and obsessing over its subversion, to medical researchers painstakingly seeking biological causes for the disease, this book covers it all. "Hidden Valley Road" ultimately focuses on several medical researchers, detailing their tireless efforts over decades to unravel the mystery of schizophrenia, using this unique family as a sample, and the winding path and breakthroughs in discovering schizophrenia susceptibility genes. · 【Editor's Recommendation】 ★ Swept almost all major European and American media's "Best Books of 2020" lists: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Time, The Times... ★ Topped The New York Times' "Ten Best Books of 2020" nonfiction list, surpassing former US President Obama's memoir "A Promised Land." ★ Former US President Obama's "Favorite Book of 2020." ★ Amazon US's "Best Nonfiction Book of 2020." ★ The only narrative nonfiction work (excluding memoirs) selected for Oprah's Book Club in its 25-year history. ★ A finalist for the 2021 PEN/America Literary Award for Nonfiction, and a longlist nominee for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Nonfiction. ★ Recommended with a preface by Lu Lin, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of Peking University Sixth Hospital. ★ Strongly recommended by Li Lingjiang, Professor at Xiangya Second Hospital of Central South University and Chairman of the Psychiatry Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; Li Qingchen, popular science writer and author of "Heart-Stopping Legends"; and Qiu Zilong, Senior Researcher at the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Deputy Director of the State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience. · 【Media and Scholar Recommendations】 A masterpiece of narrative journalism and a study of empathy. Author Robert Kolker compassionately tells the story of the Galvin family, while also outlining scientific progress in the medical community's diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia. —The New York Times Destined to become a classic of narrative nonfiction writing. —Minneapolis Star Tribune An outstanding case study, a powerful work of investigative reporting. —Sylvia Nasar, author of "A Beautiful Mind," Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award winner From the perspective of contemporary science, schizophrenia is the result of the interplay between genetic susceptibility and various adverse experiences during an individual's growth. However, finding a way to help patients break free from their "inner demons" and alleviate the suffering caused by the disease, and understanding the "mad" sensations of patients from a normal person's perspective, is sometimes more meaningful than striving to find pathogenic genes. "Hidden Valley Road"'s detailed description of the experiences of a family with a high incidence of schizophrenia may be such a panacea, and I believe its effect in this regard will far exceed merely understanding the disease itself. —Li Lingjiang, Professor at Xiangya Second Hospital of Central South University, Chairman of the Psychiatry Branch of the Chinese Medical Association In my work at the children's hospital, I've encountered families with stories similar to those in "Hidden Valley Road," but the suffering revealed in this book is many times deeper than what I've previously known. There's an upper limit to human happiness, but the lower limit of the abyss of suffering is unfathomable; there is always more intense pain that one cannot bear to witness. But confronting such pain is a necessary prerequisite for conquering it. Thanks to the scientists and doctors who face and conquer these hardships with unparalleled courage. Those who unfortunately suffer from such hidden diseases should not be monsters isolated by society and abandoned by humanity, but rather individuals enduring great misfortune who urgently need saving. —Li Qingchen, Surgeon, Popular Science Writer, Author of "Heart-Stopping Legends" Schizophrenia is the first brain disease in the history of modern human medicine found to be associated with genetic factors. The twentieth century, the setting of this book, was also a century where human society had a love-hate relationship with genetics and genes. From the initial immense worship of genes, to everyone avoiding mentioning genetic factors that cause diseases after the fall of Nazism, modern medical research on schizophrenia unfolded against this backdrop. "Hidden Valley Road" provides an excellent resource for studying schizophrenia, a large family troubled by the disease. As the mystery of schizophrenia is gradually unveiled, doctors have also discovered various drugs that can gradually alleviate the suffering of schizophrenic patients. Humanity may not yet be able to cure schizophrenia, but the tireless explorations of countless doctors and scientists will eventually free humanity from the torment of mental illness. —Qiu Zilong, Senior Researcher at the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Deputy Director of the State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience

2021-10-01

中信出版集团

New Thought Culture

448

9787521735147