The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity

Two years ago I was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and have since been put on medication and fully recovered. My therapist suggested that I read Mark Vonnegut's telling of the descent into schizophrenia. I've read other accounts of schizophrenia, but Mark's definitely takes the cake in terms of realism. I'm not even sure if I can finish the book, the book is so unsettling for me. If someone you care about has schizophrenia, read this book, it will help you understand what this disease does.

I had taken several classes in psychology in college and really thought that I had a grasp of what it was like to live with schizophrenia. Not so! This book takes you into the world and mind of a person with this disorder. Mark Vonnegut is so honest and open and you really gain a real world feel for what it is to be a person living with schizophrenia. If you are at all interested in this topic, I really feel it is a must read!

Mark Vonnegut went through three severe schizophrenic episodes in the early '70's, yet is able to maintain a sense of humor about what befell him. At that time, in his early 20's, he was going through his hippie phase, living with friends on a farm in Canada. Everyone, including Vonnegut, seemed to think what hit him was the result of oppressive society, as explained by the silly writings of ain't-no-mental-illness Thomas Szasz and the even sillier ones of mental-illness-can-be-a-good-thing R.D. Laing. Yet it turns out he was sufferering from a biochemical disorder, possibly brought on my malnutrition. What brought him back to reality was commitment to a mental hospital and some Thorazine, followed by some rather massive doses of vitamins and a better diet. I've never quite read anything like this. His descriptions of how schizophrenia crept up on him and how he thought there was nothing wrong with him, even when he was babbling gibberish, not eating and sleeping for days, are priceless. Although written in 1975, it is still relevant today, and very much worth reading.

Perhaps eclipsed by his more famous father, Mark Vonnegut has never received the recognition he deserves for this fine work. Courageous, honest and at times extremely funny, Mark tells his tale of madness without a hint of the pretension that often creeps into such works. Especially interesting is the way he tries to reconcile his schizophrenia with the hippie lifestyle he was living in the 60's, when many thought the line between sanity and madness was nonexistant at best, and that "madness is a sane response to an insane society." After a prolonged hell where he lost the ability to eat, sleep, or have a moment's peace, Mark ended up embracing and being helped by good old fashioned square western medicine, without losing the depth or sincerity of his countercultural leanings. His evocation of the experience of madness itself outstrips anything I have ever read on the topic. A very good book.