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![Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by [William Styron]](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211006162528im_/https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51CM82v1VSL._SY346_.jpg)
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2016
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Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2017
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Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2020
Just as an example, this 57 word sentence with SEVEN clauses: "Simone del Duca, a large dark-haired woman of queenly manner, was understandably incredulous at first, and then enraged, when after the presentation ceremony I told her that I could not join her at lunch upstairs in the great mansion, along with a dozen or so other members of The Academy Francaise, who had chosen me for the prize." (p. 14).
This book has a lot of problems, and I can't imagine why it was ever so popular.
Problem #1 is that any physician who diagnoses himself has a fool for a patient. (And this author does that several times.)
A fortiori, in the case of psychiatric issues -where your perception is not the same as that of other people around you-- and it makes you unable to "see" things.
Problem #2 is that the writing is just SO BLOATED. This book reads like something that was written in the Victorian era. There are any number of authors (notably, John Green of "The Fault in Our Stars") that are able to create prose of tremendous power with relatively simple English words.
Problem #3 is that this book was written about three and a half decades ago, and new psychiatric treatments have been developed in abundance since then. (I believe that Seroquel was only invented around 1997, and it is very good at treating bipolar mania / mixed states.)
*******
If you're interested in a topic like this, I'd recommend instead Kate Redfield Jamison. She has written two books that I have read ("An Unquiet Mind" / "Night Falls Fast"), and they contain elements of her mental health journey –– but it is different because she is actually a practicing physician. (Ironically, a practicing psychiatrist.)
And that brings me back to what I mentioned in the first point: Even though Dr. Jamison might have known better than anybody else what her treatment was, she did outsource her treatment to another mental health professional.
*******
A lot of what the author describes (at GREAT length) are things that have been known for some time, which is that:
1. There is a link between creativity and mood disorders. (Also detailed in a much more readable book by Kay Jamison: "Touched With Fire.")
2. There's a link between substance abuse and other mental illnesses, caused by people trying to medicate whatever is bothering them.
*******
(p.43). I think that the author's own words are suitable here. "Pervasive hypochondria." I can't be the only one who has read this book and observed that all of these people who were finding things with which to torture themselves were wealthy, well fed people who had disposable income to live in places like Martha's Vineyard.
And my agreement with the sentiment that "to be engaged in a desperate struggle for survival is to be holy free from a sense of futility" has only been reinforced after reading this book.
This WORDY book.
This VERY VERY wordy book.
*******
Verdict: Not recommended. Not even at the price of $0.01
Verified Purchase
Maximum words, minimum value
By Leib Gershon Mitchell on October 14, 2020
A lot of very impenetrable prose for low value added.By Leib Gershon Mitchell on October 14, 2020
Just as an example, this 57 word sentence with SEVEN clauses: "Simone del Duca, a large dark-haired woman of queenly manner, was understandably incredulous at first, and then enraged, when after the presentation ceremony I told her that I could not join her at lunch upstairs in the great mansion, along with a dozen or so other members of The Academy Francaise, who had chosen me for the prize." (p. 14).
This book has a lot of problems, and I can't imagine why it was ever so popular.
Problem #1 is that any physician who diagnoses himself has a fool for a patient. (And this author does that several times.)
A fortiori, in the case of psychiatric issues -where your perception is not the same as that of other people around you-- and it makes you unable to "see" things.
Problem #2 is that the writing is just SO BLOATED. This book reads like something that was written in the Victorian era. There are any number of authors (notably, John Green of "The Fault in Our Stars") that are able to create prose of tremendous power with relatively simple English words.
Problem #3 is that this book was written about three and a half decades ago, and new psychiatric treatments have been developed in abundance since then. (I believe that Seroquel was only invented around 1997, and it is very good at treating bipolar mania / mixed states.)
*******
If you're interested in a topic like this, I'd recommend instead Kate Redfield Jamison. She has written two books that I have read ("An Unquiet Mind" / "Night Falls Fast"), and they contain elements of her mental health journey –– but it is different because she is actually a practicing physician. (Ironically, a practicing psychiatrist.)
And that brings me back to what I mentioned in the first point: Even though Dr. Jamison might have known better than anybody else what her treatment was, she did outsource her treatment to another mental health professional.
*******
A lot of what the author describes (at GREAT length) are things that have been known for some time, which is that:
1. There is a link between creativity and mood disorders. (Also detailed in a much more readable book by Kay Jamison: "Touched With Fire.")
2. There's a link between substance abuse and other mental illnesses, caused by people trying to medicate whatever is bothering them.
*******
(p.43). I think that the author's own words are suitable here. "Pervasive hypochondria." I can't be the only one who has read this book and observed that all of these people who were finding things with which to torture themselves were wealthy, well fed people who had disposable income to live in places like Martha's Vineyard.
And my agreement with the sentiment that "to be engaged in a desperate struggle for survival is to be holy free from a sense of futility" has only been reinforced after reading this book.
This WORDY book.
This VERY VERY wordy book.
*******
Verdict: Not recommended. Not even at the price of $0.01
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2016
Verified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2016
Verified Purchase
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