A century ago, people with mental illness was handled through a sanitarium. Since the advent of helpful but imperfect medications in the latter twentieth century, however, many with mental illness now live in the community. As a result, they have to deal with stigma around their illness – both others’ and their own. Siddoway (simply Rachael in the tale) tells a true story of her parents and her family. She shows how hard their lives were and how they overcame to live more meaningful lives.
The hero in Siddoway’s tale is clearly her father. He persisted in maintaining his family throughout her mother’s struggles. She tends to see him as a near-perfect figure. Mental illness affects the family unit as a whole. Siddoway’s grandfather also struggled with mental illness. Her siblings and herself had a very atypical upbringing as a result. This book provides ample fodder for reflection on familial implications of psychiatric diseases. Although it attempts to remain objective in its telling, it could have benefitted from expressing more personal viewpoints.
Although religion does not play a leading role in this tale, it clearly resides in the background. While it functions as a source of strength for characters, I also wonder whether it was a source of stigma, too. The parents were more focused on suffering nobly than gaining helpful scientific information on how to deal with their illness. The main characters (the parents) must work through their stigma in order to gain a more peaceful life. Religion, for all its good points, can sometimes turn popular stigma into socially oppressive structures.
The audiences that will likely best benefit from reading this work are those with mental illness and those whose families are affected by mental illness – especially severe mental illness. That number is surprisingly high. This story emphasizes how medication, at best, often offers only a partial solution. It shows the value of proper medical treatments and how all-too-human shortcomings often smother good treatments. This story can help individuals work through their own stigma about how mental illness affects their friends and even themselves.
An Impossible Wife: Why He Stayed: A True Story of Love, Marriage, and Mental Illness
By Rachael Siddoway
Copyright (c) 2021
The Gap Press
ASIN B099M3N9HJ
Page Count: 200
Genre: Biography, Psychology
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