FOREWORD BY TERRIE E. MOFFITT, PhD
“This honest, lucid book examines the urgent problems of family history and early diagnosis in mental illness. . . . It will be invaluable to families trying to understand their own history, and to those who have been blind to such history.”
ANDREW SOLOMON
National Book Award recipient for The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
“Victoria Costello’s sad but gripping account of her family’s struggles to reach recovery demonstrates the value of resilience and persistence.”
PAUL RAEBURN
Former AP chief science correspondent and author of Acquainted with the Night: A Parent’s Quest to Understand Depression and Bipolar Disorder in His Children
“A Lethal Inheritance . . . should be required reading for any parent with a family history of mental illness, for pediatricians, and for educators. . . . As a mother, I am grateful to [Costello] for giving me the tools to understand the risks my family history presents to my children. But more importantly, I am grateful to [her] for her insights on how both to avert and to survive a child’s mental health crisis.”
AYELET WALDMAN
Author of Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes,
Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace
“Costello skillfully weaves all the latest medical research with an evocative and moving account of her two sons’ descents into the depths of schizophrenia and depression and then moves upward into hope and recovery. . . . A Lethal Inheritance is a graceful balance between science and memoir.”
LINDA GRAY SEXTON
Author of Half in Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide
“As a society, we’re still on that long journey to understand mental illness, both in an individual and in the spreading circles of its effects on families and on communities. Victoria Costello’s compassionate and compelling personal journey through the subject allows us to explore those circles as she does so herself. Read it because the lessons are so valuable—and read it because it’s a story so beautifully told.”
DEBORAH BLUM
Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection
“Both an affecting chronicle of her family’s mental illness and a useful guide to detection and prevention. . . . Costello presents a book of vigorous personal and factual research.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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Visit the author's website at ALethalInheritance.com
and view the book trailer on YouTube.
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 267
ISBN: 978-1-61614-466-1
Shipping Weight: 1lbs
Author Bio:
Victoria Costello is an Emmy Award-winning science writer with articles in Scientific American MIND and Brain World. She is the coauthor with child psychiatrist Jack Westman, MD, of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Child & Adolescent Psychology, and with family therapist Stephen Martin of The Everything Parent’s Guide to Children with OCD. Her blog posts on psychology and family mental health can be read on the Huffington Post, Yahoo! News Health & Wellness, PsychCentral, Mamapedia, and MentalHealthMomBlog. With the Mental Health Association of San Francisco, Costello is a speaker, workshop facilitator, and state and federal advocate working to improve the mental health of youth and families.
