What is it like to have bipolar disorder? How do you know you have it? Does it necessarily impede a normal, well-adjusted life? Is there something that can be done about it? These are the questions Andy Behrman tries to answer, based on his first-hand experience of this mental disorder, in his autobiographical work Electroboy.
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I received this book from a friend who had been diagnosed with the same ailment. According to her it's an excellent description of how the disorder sneaks up on you slowly, getting you used to its presence so gradually, that by the time it unfolds its full power, the afflicted person is likely to accept it in all its familiarity.
Very Close First-Person Account
Far from being a dry and removed psychological literature, this book reads more like the life story of an all-American kid growing up in a functional upper-middle class setting, without being aware of his gradually developing manic-depression. For those who have studied this disorder, certain early warning signs may become apparent, but for any lay person, reading the author's description of his adolescence and young adulthood, there's hardly anything that sticks out as weird or unusual in any way.
Sure, the guy may be accused of being snobbish, restless, aloof, maybe even arrogant, but mentally sick? Probably not! And that is the whole point Behrman tries to drive home, again and again, each time with increasing intensity.
From Counting Cars to Forging Art
Is it normal for a teenager to be sitting in their bedroom window, counting the cars that pass by outside? Not really, but does it really matter? Fast forward a decade: Is it normal for a successful PR agent in New York to take up a night job as a stripper? Once again: not typically, but why would anyone care? Even his escapade into art forgery I read with great excitement, rooting for scamming another "almost scammer", Mark Kostabi.
Just to illustrate this crime: Artist Kostabi was Behrman's PR client, who used to have his pictures painted by art students for minimum wage, which he would then sign and sell for high-rolling customers. In itself an ingenious idea, until Behrman got together with one of the wage-working painters, and together they produced a number of "real" Kostabi paintings, with forged signatures. In the end they got caught, and Behrman was locked away for a while, first in a white-collar facility, then at house arrest.
Coming to Terms With His Disorder
It was during his time in confinement where Behrman actually realized that something may be wrong with him. Throughout his entire life up to that point he had been running, as fast and as far as he could. This meant switching agencies, residences, therapists, friends, and sex-partners with an incredible pace. This included flying around the world impulsively without a plan or a reason. This also resulted in doing a various drugs at a time, both illegal and prescribed medication.
Once these routes of escape became bared to him, he was ultimately confronted with the reality of bipolar disorder. From then on, in the last third of the book he describes his treatment and supposed cure, by undergoing electroshock therapy. Completely unlike many people would think, who had never known anyone experiencing this method, in Behrman's description this treatment sounds like a liberating and highly effective way to overcome the problems caused by this disorder.
A Book That Shows Rather Than Tells
What I love most about Electroboy is the way it reads: simply MANIC! It is filled with complex thoughts, crowded together in sentences struggling to contain them. He likes to jump from idea to idea, frustrating the reader just sufficiently to notice: these ideas are not nearly as important as his jumps between them. He also never apologizes for his wealthy upbringing, or for his grandiose self perception.
Could it be that he wrote the book while being high on a manic episode? It may certainly seem like that, until you get into the last part, where he takes a surprisingly calm approach. So instead, it's more likely that he adopted his manic "normality" from the past, to clearly illustrate the nature of his disorder. As a result, the reader feels like taking a crazy ride into the mind of a manic-depressive, sharing the rush of the mania, while feeling the debilitating effect of the depressive turn.
I can recommend Electroboy whole-heartedly to anyone interested in this mental disorder, whether they may be clinical experts, or completely lay. Also, since several people who have suffered from manic-depression endorse and recommend this book, I believe it adds to its credibility. Note: there is a motion picture by the same title, which I first got quite excited about, but it turned out to be the story of another person, suffering of another mental disorder.
You may also be interested in the other book reviews in my Bibliophilia series:
My 12 Most Recommendable Permaculture Readings
Another 12 Permaculture Books - Specialized Readings
Riane Eisler – The Chalice and the Blade
William McDonough and Michael Braungart - Cradle to Cradle
Charles Eisenstein - Sacred Economics
Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Charles C. Mann - 1491
Tom Wolfe - From Bauhaus to Our House
Ideas and Concepts of Daniel Quinn
B. Traven - The Death Ship and The Cotton Pickers
Books by Wladimir Kaminer
Remembering the Good Doctor Gonzo - Hunter S. Thompson
Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Robert A. Wilson Expanding His Readers' Minds
Gary Jennings' Head-dive into Mexican History
A Book Full of Connections: Diana Hartel's Watershed Redemption