'What Schizophrenia Teaches Us About Being Human' w/ Bob Kolker - Ep #39

In Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy famously wrote "All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way".Join our interview with author Robert Kolker whose book 'Hidden Valley Road' explores a family that pushes that dictum to the absolute edge.This conversation explores the themes that are brought up in his extraordinary book 'Hidden Valley Road'. The book chronicles the schizophrenia that haunted the Galvin family, who were considered 'the most mentally ill family in America'.The Galvin parents had twelve children (10 sons and 2 daughters) but six of the boys would meet untimely ends due to schizophrenia.The book is a tour de force that gives an insight into schizophrenia, family dynamics, the nature of mind and much else. The characters of the Galvin family seemed plucked from The Royal Tennenbaums, the mental breakdowns from Jacob's Ladder, and the America we see is straight from Easy Rider.'Hidden Valley Road' was an instant #1 New York Times best-seller and selection of Oprah's Book Club that was named a Top Ten Book of the Year by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Slate; one of the year’s best by NPR, the Boston Globe, the New York Post, and Amazon; the #1 book of the year by People; and one of President Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2020.We'll explore the science of schizophrenia, the lessons he learnt and try to take in this incredible tale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.