Richard McLean
Recovered, Not Cured (2005)
Author: Richard McLean
Genre: Nonfiction (Memoir)
Book Summary:
For anyone who's ever wondered how schizophrenics can possibly believe the bizarre things they perceive, McLean shows how the initial mild weird thoughts build so gradually that the ill person does not realize that he's ill. McLean takes us on his journey through madness, beginning with faint voices outside and mildly odd thoughts inside, and delving deep into secret messages from friends, family, and media, threats from unknown sources, and mental streetlamp-control. He talks about the illness's impact on his life, from art to music to sexuality. Changes in surroundings alleviate McLean's paranoia, but only temporarily as the building "conspiracy" follows him from Australia to Europe and back. When McLean finally begins to think he might be schizophrenic, he fears that the unknown conspirators wish to make him only think he's schizophrenic.
After years of this downward spiral, McLean finally takes a leap of faith and visits Dr. X, the psychiatrist who is able to successfully treat him. While McLean still has some mild delusions today, he is able to recognize them as such, needing only occasional "reality checks" with those close to him.
Geographical Setting: Australia and Europe
Time Period: Late 1980s-2004
Appeal Characteristics:
McLean's small but mighty autobiography presents an engrossing first-person account of the gradual onset of his paranoid schizophrenia. The book is divided up into seven sections, which are further divided into short accounts of various incidents that happened as his mind turned against itself. While the account is suitably detailed, these short accounts keep the reader reading "just a little bit more." The account centers squarely on the progression of McLean's paranoid schizophrenia. McLean includes a great deal of artwork that he created while struggling with his illness, along with his interpretations of these pieces. McLean discusses schizophrenia frankly, his story neither bleak nor sugar-coated, with just a touch of humor. Readers will appreciate McLean's frank discussion of his illness and recovery. Those who are dealing with schizophrenia, either as a patient or as someone close to a patient, will find the list of resources at the end helpful.
Read-alikes: Readers who are interested in abnormal psychology will like Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. In this memoir, Kaysen describes her stay at a mental institution after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. While she's there, she meets other young women dealing with other mental illnesses, and highlights her experiences with them. Readers who liked the gentle humor present in McLean's book will like Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood by Jennifer Traig. As a young woman, Traig suffered from a hyper-religious form of OCD called scrupulosity. Traig discusses her illness in the context of her Jewish upbringing with candor and humor.
Those drawn to McLean's schizophrenia-inspired artwork (and his mention of Van Gogh) will enjoy perusing Van Gogh: Explore Vincent van Gogh's Life and Art, and the Influences That Shaped His Work. This biography of Van Gogh, a schizophrenic himself, discusses his life and art with lots of beautiful illustrations highlighting his life story.
Readers interested in exploring identity issues (both of the self and of those surrounding) and a great deal of surrealism will like the novel A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick. Scanner delves into the psyches of several disturbed characters. Bob Arctor, a drug addict, descends gradually into a psychotic break, with Fred, a narcotics agent, hot on his trail.
Those interested in the music mentioned in McLean's book should check out Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon. Their distinctive, complex sound, coupled with themes of mental illness and "persecutionary homo-erotic tendencies," as McLean calls it, should please music aficionados and armchair psychologists alike.
Red Flags: Drug use, sexuality, profanity
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