Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

160 reviews

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

4.0

informative reflective medium-paced

Well, this one has been chillin' on my TBR shelf for years now, waiting for its moment. I was really feeling a sort of narrative nonfiction, a la Patrick Radden Keefe (Empire of Pain, Rogues), and during a month in which I led quite a few Mental Health First Aid trainings with work, this felt like exactly the right mix of my current professional vibes and my reading mood. As always, I listened to the audiobook - my absolute preferred way to intake nonfiction works.

From 1945 to 1965, Mimi and Don Galvin had no less than 12 children. By the mid 70s, six of them had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. In this book, Robert Kolker weaves together the story of the Galvin family, the history of mental health and mental illness care, and specifically the evolution of thought surrounding schizophrenia (causes, treatment, etc.) through the eyes of this family's experiences and their contributions to the National Institute of Mental Health's studies.

This was truly a fascinating read. The research, both into the greater world of mental illness and into the Galvin family directly, through access to medical records and in conversation with members of the Galvin family and (close) friends, was clearly well detailed and thorough. It truly was in line with the works by Radden Keefe that I mentioned above, if slightly more narratively dense. Kolker really delved deeply into this family, and we got to see in so much detail and clarity the way that each child dealt with and responded to and came to terms with (or not) this childhood environment. And for each, we watched as questions of nature vs nurture were asked and played out, affecting not just their mental health as far as schizophrenia is concerned, but also more generally, with how they made choices for the rest of their lives too (both those diagnosed and those who were caregivers). As far as the industry aspects, the discourse around that same question of nature vs nurture in an academic/medical setting was so interesting to read, and felt more immediate when communicated alongside the Galvins' stories. I learned so much, and also had my heart broken over and over watching "money-making capacity" be the largest influence in the pharma (and sometimes overall medical) industry, as opposed to the benefit and betterment and care of patients as people. And even when the person, the patient, was centered, the best knowledge/efforts were often still not enough.

On the whole, the one dynamic that I felt like was missing was a little more reflection on socioeconomic and racial aspects. How these same choices and situations faced by the Galvins might have/did look differently for those living with less privilege, *especially* considering how many laws and rules these boys broke growing up (and not just “basic” ones). I mean, I understand how much the diagnoses played a role in that behavior, but there is no way that interactions with law enforcement would have looked the same for BIPOC, queer or less socially connected people. With how deeply the rest of the medical knowledge and time period environment was considered, not having (really any) acknowledgement of privilege was noticeable. At the same time, I do want to say: what a necessary general indictment of mental health services, that even with all those intangible privileges, these sick people came into contact with law enforcement so often as their only contact with state “assistance” and response, when they really needed medical care (and don’t even get me started on what that “medical care” looked like when they finally got it).

A final thought... I really appreciated the sensitive and understanding look at the human costs of all this on each family member - acknowledging that their choices were all the best ones they knew how to or were empowered to make - under the circumstances - for their own survival. There is a beautiful and equally necessary kindness and compassion and humane-ness in that method of "telling" this story, that not all (not even most) people dealing with or caring for those with mental illness get. What an engaging reading experience.

“Life is merely the permanent roots your family knots around you.”

Content Warnings

bookwitch's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

A slow paced, eye opening, realistic look at what schzophrenia looks like day to day as opposed to it's depiction in media. So sad that the brothers suffer(ed) with little to no understanding, but amazing that the family's DNA was being used to further research and make modern discoveries.

This has a docuseries adaption (ish) on some platform; it was interesting to actually get to hear some of the brothers talk about their own ideas of their experience. Interesting to think about the morality of allowing the sister to speak for the deceased ones, etc. Very messy when you start thinking about it that way though.

Content Warnings

maysiebe's review against another edition

4.0

dark informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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courtthelionberryann's review against another edition

4.0

emotional informative sad slow-paced

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eelantropa's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional informative medium-paced

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tuckert2's review against another edition

4.0

dark informative sad medium-paced

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hannahniles's review against another edition

3.5

informative medium-paced

**Mild spoilers**
So I enjoyed this read but came away after it was done feeling like nothing really happened in the end? The book starts out detailing the lives of the parents and the births of 12 kids. You can see where the details of 12 kids being born and growing up might get a little tedious. Then you read about each one of them psychologically breaking and getting sent to the mental hospital then sent home, then sent back, which also gets tedious. In the end none of them really get an effective cure, some of them have died and the worst sick son never faces any consequences for his actions.

I guess I was waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel but it never really happened. Not to say it wasn't interesting but after it was over, I was like.. OK.

Content Warnings

katlib's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

A deeply researched look at a single family that transformed schizophrenia research. I read Girls and their Monsters first, and I recommend that readers who liked this book to go read it, in part, because Girls and their Monsters covers some topics that are not within the scope of Kolker's work. Particularly, the latter book covers the way that racism impacted who received a schizophrenia diagnosis and which mothers were accused of causing said diagnosis. It's an unfortunate blind spot of this book. Both are worth your time if you are interested in the history of mental health care and research in the U.S. across the twentieth century.

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tip_be_knowin's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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barelyconcealed's review against another edition

4.0

In many ways this book is as much about the treatment of schizophrenia across the 20th century as it is about the pressures that are placed on girl children to be caretakers rather than simply children.

I liked this better than Kolker's previous work, but this ultimately is a touch uneven. There are a lot of people in the Calvin family and attempting to keep them straight is incredibly difficult, more so because the narrative is largely linear - except when it isn't.

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