Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Louis Sass has written a fascinating comparisonof modernism and schizophrenia and related disorders -- I couldn't put this book down. Sass' knowledge of modern art and literature, coupled with his experience as a clinical psychologist and professor at Rutgers, makes this book. It's extremely well-written -- the language is complex, but by no means stilted and academic for the sake of being academic. Sass' words will catch you and draw you through fascinating discussions about identity, language, visual representation, and much more. He presents balanced observations and makes appropriate connections -- he doesn't romanticize schizophrenia. One story he relays expresses this perfectly (pardon my paraphrasing): James Joyce discussed the creative similarities between him and his daughter, a schizophrenic, with Carl Jung. Jung described the difference between Joyce's creativity and his daughter's seeming creativity by saying that the difference was that Joyce was diving down into the depths while his daughter was falling. This is a perfect analogy to put Sass' book into perspective. If you have any interest in issues of identity, psychology, and modern culture, you will want to read this book.
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