> For a course I'll be teaching next fall (a first year seminar on the
> meanings of madness), we'll be discussing the distinction between
> normality and abnormality. The students will be reading a number of
> biographies/autobiographies for the other topics, and I wanted to assign
> one for this topic as well. I'm looking for an interesting biography/
> autobiography about an individual whose eccentricities raise the question,
> "Is there really anything wrong with this person?" Any ideas out there?
>
You might take a look at a book I just got and haven't read yet. It's called
"A Beautiful Mind : A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr.," by Sylvia Nasar.
Nash was a mathematical genius who was apparently pretty eccentric to begin
with, then developed schizophrenia. After 30 years, his condition
(miraculously?) improved and he returned to some semblance of normality. Along
in here, he also won the Nobel Prize for economics.
You might find it useful to take a look at the range of opinions readers offer
about the book at the amazon.com web site--the book gets mixed reviews, that
are positive on average. There are a couple of other books mentioned there that
I don't know about, but which might be possibilities for your project, too.
Pat Cabe
**************************************************
Patrick Cabe, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
One University Drive
Pembroke, NC 28372-1510
(910) 521-6630
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
