2.3 million Americans, approximately 1.2% of the U.S. population, suffer from bipolar disorder and nearly 1 million Canadians suffer from severe and persistent mental illness. Mental disorders are now recognized to rival major physical diseases as the leading cause of economic, physical, and psychological burdens worldwide. Stephen Hinshaw's compelling account of his father's life-long struggle with bipolar disease reveals the isolation, confusion, hopelessness, and destruction of serious mental illness that patients and their families experience. Hinshaw, an academic psychologist, incorporates the range of factors that contribute to serious mental disorder, as well as issues of self-image, resilience, diagnosis and treatment.

His belief that devastating and even debilitating life experiences can yield strength, gentleness, and resilience is reflected in the compassionate description of his father's life. Stephen P. Hinshaw s Professor of Psychology and former Director of the Clinical Science program at the,University of California, Berkeley. He has authored over 120 articles, chapters and reviews and is the author of the book, Attention Deficits and Hyperactivity in Children (Sage, 1994).