Author Description

Product DescriptionMarie Balter's courageous story of hope and healing has inspired millions around the country. After spending the first twenty years of her adult life in a mental hospital, she gradually emerged from the terror of the back wards, eventually to attend graduate school at Harvard University and become a leading champion for the mentally ill.From Publishers WeeklyBalter's unusual life story, told in collaboration with anthropologist-psychologist Katz, traces the self-healing of a woman who spent nearly 20 years in the Massachusetts mental hospital she entered at age 17. A chaotic upbringing by strict adoptive parents, depression and multiple misdiagnoses are some of the elements that contributed to Balter's institutionalization. Now a mental-health professional, she describes in heart-wrenching detail her gradual and ongoing emergence from psychosis, through the love and respect of others and herself. She tells of her admission to college after leaving the hospital, of a happy marriage ended by her husband's death and of graduate study at Harvard. Generous with praise and forgiveness, Balter (whose story was the subject of a TV movie) exemplifies the power of courage, hope and spiritual commitment.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.About the AuthorMarie Balter, M.Ed. is a writer, lecturer, and advocate for the mentally ill. She is the winner of America's Award, “the ordinary person's Medal of Honor.”Richard Katz, Ph.D. clinical psychologist and anthropologist, is the author ofBoiling Energy: Community Healing among the Kalahari Kung. He teaches full time at Saskatchewan Indian Federated College in Canada, and at Harvard Medical School.