by Michael Fortnam ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 2012
A brief, readable glimpse into a fractured mind.
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From debut author Fortnam comes a brief memoir about his struggle with mental illness.
As the author states in the introduction to this personal story, “Having a mental illness is complicated, confusing, and socially difficult to live with.” What follows is an explanation of just how complicated, confusing and socially difficult it is. In periods of depression, “There was no feeling of being alive or of myself ever being different or happy again,” he writes, and in times of mania, “In my craze, my knowledge seemed to expand.” Fortnam describes a mental unbalance that led to an arrest and, eventually, time in a mental institution. The narrative moves along in a brisk, disquieting manner as the author goes from being a sad, largely friendless individual to a person of interest to the authorities. After he caught the eyes of police due to an argument with a nonexistent girlfriend, a search of the author’s apartment led to the authorities’ discovery of what they deemed to be an explosive device. With the threat of prison time, the author writes, “My mind raced in silent terror as I waited, not knowing what was to happen next.” Readers follow along while the author provides a steady stream of his inner thoughts as the authorities deem him unfit for society. Though eventually released from his forced stay in a mental hospital, the recovery from such an episode proves to be anything but instantaneous. “I was told it was a process and it would take time,” he says. Brief, at 64 pages, the memoir offers a realistic, unembellished look at one man’s mental struggle. The mentally ill, it can be discerned from this account, don’t necessarily realize they are mentally ill, and they certainly don’t ask for such a circumstance. Most enlightening when describing the author’s actions—such as shopping sprees during manic episodes—the story paints an unglamorous, astute portrayal of being unable to trust one’s own mind.
A brief, readable glimpse into a fractured mind.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1478719090
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Outskirts Press Inc.
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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