cover image Troubled Journey

Troubled Journey

Diane T. Marsh. Jeremy P. Tarcher, $24.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-87477-875-5

Marsh is a professor of psychology (Univ. of Pittsburgh at Greensburg) and author of several scholarly books on families of the mentally ill. Dickens is the brother and son of mental patients, and founded one of the first support groups for such family members. Together, they have compiled an assessment of the effects of mental illness on patients' families. Relying heavily on responses to surveys, the authors list common experiences within these families and their long-term effects, including low self-esteem, perfectionism and fear of developing mental illnesses and depression. Marsh and Dickens enumerate the ways in which the ""functioning"" of individuals and families is impaired by the presence of the mental illness of a relative. Even so, they seem to equate the term ""dysfunctional family"" with blaming a family for the illness. The one issue that for certain separates the families of the mentally ill from families dealing with other problems is the required dealings with mental health professionals, institutions and systems, yet these specifics are given too little attention here. With fewer listings and more complex personal stories rather than the brief quotes that are used, in many cases, to underscore what the text has already stated, this might have been a more solid self-help manual for people facing difficult family experiences. Instead, the book seems rather incomplete, and lacks the warm, personal touch that families of the mentally ill may need. (July)