Another Kind of Madness

Families are riddled with untold secrets. But Stephen Hinshaw would have never thought that in his family a profound secret had been kept for 18 years. From the moment his father revealed his long history with mental illness and involuntary hospitalizations, Hinshaw knew his life would be changed forever.

Hinshaw terms these insights from his father as a "psychological birth." After years of experiencing the ups and downs of his father's illness without knowing it existed, watching him disappear for weeks at a time only to return as the loving father he had always known, everything he experienced as a child now made a strange sense. He learned as much as possible about his father's illness, and what began as an exploration into his father's past and mental health turned into a full-fledged career as a clinical psychologist.

In Another Kind of Madness, Hinshaw explores the burden of living in a family "loaded" with mental illness and debunks the stigma behind it. In today's society, mental health problems can result in a loss of a driver's license, inability to vote or run for office, ineligibility for jury service, or automatic relinquishment of child custody. With a moving personal narrative and shocking facts about how America views mental health conditions in the 21st century, Another Kind of Madness is a passionate call to arms regarding the importance of destigmatizing mental illness.

“"This heartfelt memoir shares insights into the effects of mental illness on all involved." -- Booklist "Another Kind of Madness is one of the best books I've read about the cost of stigma and silence in a family touched by mental illness. I was profoundly moved by Stephen Hinshaw's story, written beautifully, from the inside-out. It's a masterpiece." --Glenn Close, award-winning actor and founder of Bring Change 2 Mind "Stephen Hinshaw's insightful memoir chronicles the effect of his father's lifelong bipolar disorder on the whole family. But the real subject is the crippling impact of hiding the disorder -- even from the children -- for decades. Another Kind of Madness is a revealing, personal, and poignant look at the stigma surrounding mental illness that, even today, delays effective diagnosis and treatment, undermines research, creates misunderstanding, and imposes misery on millions." --Harold S Koplewicz, MD, President, Child Mind Institute "Smart, well-written and genuinely informative books that capture what it's like to love and live with a person with bipolar disorder are all but non-existent. Or were until now. Stephen Hinshaw's memoir of growing up in a home infused by the stresses -- and secrets -- of a father's long-misdiagnosed mental illness is alternately poignant and painful, yet always on the mark. With remarkable honesty and unflinching immediacy, he allows us to accompany him as he grows from a frightened child to a determined advocate and healer, taking on illness and stigma alike while wrestling with the residue of his complex family legacy. This book is a must-read for anyone grappling with serious mental illness and its fallout on families. Highly readable, yet informed by the latest science, it belongs in the waiting room of every family doctor and mental health practitioner -- and on the bookshelf of any reader who hopes to bring the hidden realities of mental illness into the light." --Judith Warner, author of We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication "In Another Kind of Madness, Hinshaw blends a memoir of family silence and shame in the face of severe mental disorder with a research-based exploration of the stigmatization of mental illness. He does so with grace and candor, juxtaposing his father's lifelong. misdiagnosed bipolar illness with 20th century medical and political history." --Ayelet Waldman, author of A Really Good Day "Dr. Stephen Hinshaw has both the lived experience of being raised by a father with severe mental disorder and the psychological expertise to understand his father's illness and its impact on the family. Hinshaw's writing is strong and his story compelling. His is also a narrative that needs to be heard--it will have a major impact on people with mental illness in the family, as well as on eradicating the pervasive stigma that still clings to mental illness." --Elyn R. Saks, Professor, University of Southern California and author of The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness "Stephen Hinshaw writes with rare, courageous honesty about madness as a family affair. His engrossing portrait of life with his brilliant, bipolar father weaves together intimate scenes of his family's responses to the absences and terror with an expert's reflection on the destructive toll of society's stigma regarding mental illness. This is an immensely readable and relevant story." --Katherine Ellison, Pulitzer-prize winning former foreign correspondent and author and co-author of three books about Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder”

"This heartfelt memoir shares insights into the effects of mental illness on all involved." --Booklist

"Another Kind of Madness is one of the best books I've read about the cost of stigma and silence in a family touched by mental illness. I was profoundly moved by Stephen Hinshaw's story, written beautifully, from the inside-out. It's a masterpiece." --Glenn Close, award-winning actor and founder of Bring Change 2 Mind

"Stephen Hinshaw's insightful memoir chronicles the effect of his father's lifelong bipolar disorder on the whole family. But the real subject is the crippling impact of hiding the disorder -- even from the children -- for decades. Another Kind of Madness is a revealing, personal, and poignant look at the stigma surrounding mental illness that, even today, delays effective diagnosis and treatment, undermines research, creates misunderstanding, and imposes misery on millions." --Harold S Koplewicz, MD, President, Child Mind Institute

"Smart, well-written and genuinely informative books that capture what it's like to love and live with a person with bipolar disorder are all but non-existent. Or were until now. Stephen Hinshaw's memoir of growing up in a home infused by the stresses -- and secrets -- of a father's long-misdiagnosed mental illness is alternately poignant and painful, yet always on the mark. With remarkable honesty and unflinching immediacy, he allows us to accompany him as he grows from a frightened child to a determined advocate and healer, taking on illness and stigma alike while wrestling with the residue of his complex family legacy. This book is a must-read for anyone grappling with serious mental illness and its fallout on families. Highly readable, yet informed by the latest science, it belongs in the waiting room of every family doctor and mental health practitioner -- and on the bookshelf of any reader who hopes to bring the hidden realities of mental illness into the light." --Judith Warner, author of We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication

"In Another Kind of Madness, Hinshaw blends a memoir of family silence and shame in the face of severe mental disorder with a research-based exploration of the stigmatization of mental illness. He does so with grace and candor, juxtaposing his father's lifelong. misdiagnosed bipolar illness with 20th century medical and political history." --Ayelet Waldman, author of A Really Good Day

"Dr. Stephen Hinshaw has both the lived experience of being raised by a father with severe mental disorder and the psychological expertise to understand his father's illness and its impact on the family. Hinshaw's writing is strong and his story compelling. His is also a narrative that needs to be heard--it will have a major impact on people with mental illness in the family, as well as on eradicating the pervasive stigma that still clings to mental illness." --Elyn R. Saks, Professor, University of Southern California and author ofThe Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

"Stephen Hinshaw writes with rare, courageous honesty about madness as a family affair. His engrossing portrait of life with his brilliant, bipolar father weaves together intimate scenes of his family's responses to the absences and terror with an expert's reflection on the destructive toll of society's stigma regarding mental illness. This is an immensely readable and relevant story." --Katherine Ellison, Pulitzer-prize winning former foreign correspondent and author and co-author of three books about Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Stephen Hinshaw is a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and of psychiatry at UC San Francisco. He has authored 350 scientific publications plus The Mark of Shame: Stigma of Mental Illness and an Agenda for Change (Oxford, 2007), the first U.S. book on mental illness stigma. His internationally renowned research has been covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, The Economist, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He lives in Berkeley, CA.

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