Shadow Syndromes by John J. Ratey and Catherine Johnson After the birth of her son Jimmy, Catherine felt bad. Her interest in life decreased, but because she was functioning passably well, she and her husband did not figure out what her problem was for a long time: she was suffering from mild depression. While undergoing psychoanalysis to become a psychoanalyst, John found that he could not free associate. He could not focus long enough to drift, and he could not become a psychoanalyst. He came to the realization that he was suffering from a mild form of ADD. John and Catherine decided to write a book(this one) on mild forms of serious disorders which sabotage seemingly normal people's life. All of the disorders presented here are presented from a neurophysical perspective, that is, that examine the brain-based biology of the disorder. The discuss shadow form (clinically termed
formes frustes) of depression, manic-depression, ADD/ADHD, intermittent rage disorder, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, addiction, and anxiety.
Despite their stated goal of allowing readers to see if they themselves may have shadow forms of one disorder or another, the cases presented in this book are all having trouble with their lives; none of them are coping particularly well. The authors seem to have picked the most severe of the mild. Frequently the chapters claiming to be about folks with mild forms of a disease turn into a lecture on the disease itself, with long explanations of the severe cases. This can be interesting, but it is confusing and clouds the ability to figure out what a mild case might look like.
The discussion of mild forms of these disorders is somewhat superfluous in that many of the disorders already have milder recognized forms with different names. For example, instead of talking about mild autism, it might be a good idea to talk about mild Asperger's Syndrome, or nonverbal learning disorders, or sensory integration disorder. The analysis of autism is frustrating in that it dealt entirely with the problems of balance and social skills, which the authors could link with faulty cerrebellums, and does not mention other problems of autism.
In every chapter, the authors speculate on the advantages of minor forms of disabilities, and even state that the world would be far more drab without them. They attempt to reassure us by saying that even if we all took drugs (they strongly advocate Prozac) we would still retain our differences. However, their stated hopes for cures for these disablities shows the frailty of their belief in their claims. Johnson's son Jimmy is autistic, which may have negatively influenced her thoughts on the topic- for my anti-cure beliefs, check out the Beautiful Spectrum section on the sidebar on Biblio File's index. In some ways, this book reads as an ad for Prozac; they claim that it helps with rage, depression, ADD... almost everything. Along with Prozac, the authors recommend physical activity to boost psychological well being.
Interesting reading.
