Shadow Syndromes: The Mild Forms of Major Mental Disorders That Sabotage Us

If you want to understand yourself and those close to you, here is another tool (yeah, besides astrology, Myers-Briggs, numerology, etc.) and a very useful one, too. It supposes that most of us have a wee tiny bit of one or more of the major mental "disorders" such as depression, ADD, bipolar, etc., and that these wee bits influence our personalities and our coping abilities and our natural "gifts" as well, more than we realize. As for me, I have a bit of ADD, which I'd figured out before, but I learned more about it and how it adds to my frustration level and lack of discipline, which in turn suggests effective mechanisms for dealing with that. I definitely recommend it. It's very well written, too.

The auther uses client narratives to illustrate each "shadow syndrome". After I finished reading the book, I diagnosed all my family members with one or more ofthe syndromes (which in reality they are shadow free) - the book kinda makes you paranoid! The authors make some interesting points - depression can actually scar the brain - right hemisphere is more active, as indicated by PET scan measuring glucose metabolism, in people with shadow syndromes - some syndromes, such as manic-depression and mild ADD, can help individuals become quit successful professionally. Overall, it was a very informative book and demonstrates how we are basically a walking and talking chemistry experiment.

Interesting concept, the idea of milder forms of the major DSM4 psychological illnesses, but the authors are big believers in better living through pharmaceuticals.

Very interesting, helps demystify mental illness a little and presents us as all a little off. Abnormal is normal

Some good portrayals--an interesting read. Highly recommended.

Very interesting