bipolar disorder – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Nowhere to Go: The Tragic Odyssey of the Homeless Mentally Ill

By Scott J. Pearson | April 14, 2025April 14, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

In psychiatry, “serious mental illness” is substitute language for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. These two difficult diseases account for much of the homelessness that American cities see. Thus, these two diseases also account for much of where tax dollars go. The utterly tragic part, however, is that decent biomedical treatments exist for these diseases; in America, the infrastructure to treat them does not. Why? And what can be improved? This book, originally published in 1988…

Psychology

My Life Story & the American Mental Healthcare System

By Scott J. Pearson | April 12, 2025April 12, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

The course of my life changed in 2001-2003, years shortly after I graduated with my undergraduate degree from college. I had always thought I’d spend my work-life trying to help people think better about God, religion, and their lives. During this time span, however, I began to suffer from bipolar disorder, a form of mental illness more serious than, say, depression or ADHD. Nothing in my life before had prepared me to deal with this…

Biography-Memoir Indie Psychology

Oh, By the Way, I Have a Mental Illness

By Scott J. Pearson | August 27, 2023August 27, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Those newly diagnosed with a mental illness usually face a bleak time. While a diagnosis is infinitely better than uncontrolled mental illness, sources of hope to overcome challenges can be few and far between. Many rightly focus on learning more about their psychological condition. Reestablishing your professional and personal lives, often wrecked by disease, becomes paramount. Some build on this knowledge and transition their career towards specializing in mental illness. However, few published stories are…

Healthcare HIV/AIDS Psychology

HIV: Issues with Mental Health & Illness

By Scott J. Pearson | February 11, 2023February 11, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

I write this review sixteen years after the publication of this book – a lifetime for rapidly advancing scientific insights. Nonetheless, this book represents an early attempt to understand how to deal with the relationship of HIV infection and severe mental illness (bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or major depressive disorder). This problem was noted early in HIV’s emergence and began to be systemically addressed more in the 1990s. HIV infection rates at the time of publication…

Biography-Memoir Psychology

An Impossible Wife: Why He Stayed: A True Story of Love, Marriage, & Mental Illness

By Scott J. Pearson | March 10, 2022March 10, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

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…

Biography-Memoir Healthcare

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

By Scott J. Pearson | January 31, 2020January 31, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Dr. Jamison is a clinical psychologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University. She also has struggled with bipolar disorder (otherwise known as manic-depression) for her entire life. Her topic of research and clinical expertise is bipolar disorder as well. Due to this rare combination of deep suffering and erudition, Dr. Jamison’s autobiography is of intense interest. She is able to view herself and her disease in an extraordinarily objective light. Thus, she can present her…