Because I Come from a Crazy Family

April 1, 2018

When asked for the umpteenth time, during the interview process for psychiatric internships after medical school, why he was interested in becoming a psychiatrist, Hallowell (Driven to Distraction) finally admitted the truth: "Because I come from a crazy family." The author, who went on to become a guru to the ADD/ADHD community, here provides not only a memoir of his journey to academic and professional success but a family portrait that is part Cheever (the painfully polite but often mentally ill and alcoholic, New England branch) and part Faulkner (a Southern gothic interlude in Charleston, SC, is marked by horrific behavior exhibited by an enigmatic, occasionally drunk stepfather). In this readable narrative, Hallowell presents an unvarnished account of his learning challenges and the forces and faith that supported him during the years of turmoil preceding his accomplishments as a pioneering psychiatrist. VERDICT Hallowell's many followers will seek out this account. Those unfamiliar with his work will find much to appreciate and absorb in his clear-eyed retelling of a life path that easily could have gone a different way.--Therese Purcell Nielsen, Huntington P.L., NY

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 22, 2018
Psychiatrist Hallowell (Driven to Distraction) handily illustrates in this entertaining memoir the adage that people go into psychiatry because they want to understand themselves and their families. Hallowell grew up in the Boston area in a family afflicted by the “triad of alcoholism, politesse, and mental illness.” His father, who was later diagnosed as bipolar, wasn’t the same after he returned from WWII with PTSD, his mother was an alcoholic, and his brother suffered from bipolar disorder and alcoholism. Hallowell fondly recalls studying at Exeter, where he embraced creative writing and developed a love of literature; his heady days at Harvard; and his years in medical school at Tulane. After he decided to specialize in child psychiatry, he learned about ADD and eventually established himself as an expert in the disorder. Hallowell asserts that he works on himself morally and spiritually and believes that he has achieved a “fairly good outcome as far as character is concerned.” While the narrative moves too quickly at times, Hallowell is earnest in his assessments about his search for his life’s calling.

April 15, 2018
A psychiatrist reflects on his childhood and the family members who struggled with mental health issues.In this sympathetic memoir, psychiatrist Hallowell (CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD, 2006, etc.) creates a memorable portrait of his younger self in relation to the colorful and often troubled family members who influenced his personal and professional development, several of whom dealt with alcoholism and/or mental illness, including both his parents and one of his brothers. A defining event of his early childhood occurred after his parents divorced and his mother remarried a charming but unstable man who had a violent drinking problem that surfaced after they moved from their familiar Cape Cod home to North Carolina. Though traumatized by this disruption within his family, Hallowell had the good fortune and family means to attend private boarding schools, where he excelled in his studies and expanded his social life. Through continued effort, he went on to attend medical school. In the latter portion of the narrative, the author touched on his internships and eventual practice, devoting much attention to stories of his patients. For the most part, Hallowell is a generous and lively storyteller, and he shares inspiring insights into his family and the patients he has treated. Yet he is surprisingly less forthcoming about tackling his own issues or feelings. "The price I paid is that I carry a lot of sadness inside me," he writes. "But that also gives me a deeper understanding of other people's sadness that lectures and books can't provide." His narrative lacks a driving momentum or evolving tension to grab readers' imaginations. Compared to other writers whose memoirs address similar issues of familial dysfunction--Mary Karr and Tobias Wolff come to mind--Hallowell's approach feels passive. He has a warm, reassuring voice, but readers may feel that there wasn't enough at stake.An affectionate, well-meaning memoir of how a psychiatrist gained empathy through his family's troubled lives.

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April 1, 2018
For any child the question, What will I be when I grow up?, leads to stock answers based in fantasy and wishful thinking. At 11, Hallowell (Driven to Distraction at Work, 2015)?living near Boston with a father suffering from bipolar disorder, a mother who drank to cope, an older brother destined down the same path, and a host of relatives in varying states of depression?proclaimed that he would be a psychiatrist, though he knew nothing about what that entailed. Following an abrupt divorce, the family moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where his mother gave in to alcoholism, and his stepfather engaged in violent drunken outbursts toward him and, especially, his mother. By the saving grace of his grandmother, Hallowell was enrolled at Exeter, which propelled him to Harvard, on the path toward medical school at Tulane, where a talent for writing helped him become one of the foremost voices in the field of ADD studies. Written in short chapters, Hallowell's memoir unfolds in a humorous manner that entertains and enlightens.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)