A riveting true story of sisters who were identical, until the voices beganGrowing up in the fifties, Carolyn Spiro was always in the shadow of her more intellectually dominant and socially outgoing twin, Pamela. But as the twins approached adolescence, Pamela began to suffer the initial symptoms of schizophrenia, hearing disembodied voices that haunted her for years and culminated during her … during her freshman year of college at Brown University where she had her first major breakdown and hospitalization. Pamela’s illness allowed Carolyn to enter the spotlight that had for so long been focused on her sister. Exceeding everyone’s expectations, Carolyn graduated from Harvard Medical School and forged a successful career in psychiatry.
Despite Pamela’s estrangement from the rest of her family, the sisters remained very close, “bonded with the twin glue,” calling each other several times a week and visiting as frequently as possible. Carolyn continued to believe in the humanity of her sister, not merely in her illness, and Pamela responded.
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. It is one of the most compelling histories of two such siblings in the canon of writing on mental illness.
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It was interesting to get the different perspectives from both sisters for the same situation and/or event
I learned so much about mental illness, and how even the medical community needs to learn more. Hopefully treatments that are much better will come soon.
Fascinating read into the heart of such darkness and how it captures and controls those who love the person lost in that darkness. For those of us who do not travel that path, it was hard to understand, and yet illuminating.
This is not a simple read and not fun in any fashion, but the subject matter is important to those who encounter or live with schizophrenia in their family or friendship sphere. It is hard to see the twins relational struggles and the misery of schizophrenic life. Because I have a long term friendship with someone who has this disorder, I saw …
This book really opened my eyes to mental illness and how it affects not only the person, but how it affects those around. From total denial, to total indulgence, this is an excellent read.
A heart wrenching story. As the grandmother of identical twin girls I could really empathize with the deterioration of the one sister. Sad story, but not a difficult book to read as they both tell their story well.
The opposing viewpoints of the twins was fascinating.
So sad this mental illness stole this amazing mind.
I was intrigued by the closeness, yet competitiveness between the identical twins this book allows us to meet. Tragically one develops schizophrenia and begins a downward spiral as the other excels in college and becomes a psychiatrist. The ensuing true story is not pleasant but an important read. It’s eye opening to realize mental health …
Very interesting book by twins, one with Schizophrenia and the other a Psychologist. Written by first one twin and then the other, covering the same time. Very interesting to read a Schizophrenic description of her inner dialogue, as she descended into madness.
This was an okay book. However, there wasn’t enough comment from Carolyn, who did not have schizophrenia, and too much from Pamela, the twin who did. I wanted to know more about Carolyn, or Lynnie, as she was known by her twin and other family members.
An interesting read!
I wish the twin-sister relationship was more firmly established, or documented.
Tough decisions by both sisters!