Just like Someone Without Mental Illness Only Moreso

#532
Title: Just like Someone Without Mental Illness Only Moreso
Author: Mark Vonnegut
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Year: 2010
224 pages

In the interval between The Eden Express and the present memoir, Vonnegut's diagnosis has shifted from schizophrenia to bipolar disorder. This isn't surprising for two reasons: 1) He responded well to lithium, which today we generally understand as tipping the scales toward a bipolar diagnosis; and 2) schizophrenia is a garbage category for a lot of disorders that include psychosis (and in my opinion, may not be etiologically related). These days, there's a lot less hebephrenic schizophrenia and a lot more bipolar II.

The Eden Express makes more sense as a narrative of manic and depressive episodes (leavened with a plethora of recreational substances). It's wild, fast, roller coaster-like. The author is not in consensual reality for much of the story. By contrast, Just like Someone Without Mental Illness Only Moreso is a normalized book, slower and perhaps less interesting, although the contrast over time is fascinating. Read the two together as a really good look at how disruptive unchecked bipolar disorder can be.