On a cold February day two months after his 20th
birthday, Henry Cockburn waded into the Newhaven estuary
outside Brighton and tried to swim across, almost
drowning in the process. The trees, he said, had told
him to do it. Nearly halfway around the world, in Kabul,
Afghanistan, journalist Patrick Cockburn learned that
Henry, his son, had been admitted to a hospital mental
ward and appeared to be suffering a mental breakdown.
Ten days later, Henry was officially diagnosed with
paranoid schizophrenia. Thus begins Patrick and Henry's
extraordinary account of Henry's steep descent into
mental illness and of Patrick's journey towards
understanding the changes it has wrought. With
remarkable candour, Patrick writes of the seven years
since, years Henry has spent almost entirely in mental
hospitals. Schizophrenics are at high risk for suicide,
and Patrick and his wife live in constant fear for
Henry's life. Patrick also provides a fascinating
glimpse into the conflicted history of schizophrenia's
diagnosis and treatment and shows how little we still
know about this debilitating condition. The book also
includes Henry's own account of his experiences.In these
raw and eerily beautiful chapters written from the
hospital, he tells of the visions and voices that urge
him on and of the sense that he has discovered something
magical and profound. Together, Patrick's and Henry's
stories create one of the most nuanced and revealing
portraits of mental illness ever written, and a stirring
memoir of family, parenthood, and the courage it takes
to persevere and emerge, at last, whole. |
|