Divided Minds

Author: Pamela Spiro Wagner

List Price: $24.95

Pages: 336

Publisher: St. Martin's Press (August 1, 2005)

Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.1

ISBN: 0312320647 

For many, the idea of being one of identical twins--and possibly the possessor of telepathic communicative powers--sends chills up the spine¹. Add certifiable schizophrenia to the potent² emotional state of identical twinship, and the potential for nightmare magnifies.

In their disturbingly powerful memoir³, however, the Spiro sisters reveal all this as the stuff of their everyday reality. Explosive encounters with one another, other family members, friends, and medical professionals are recounted with jarring straightforwardness⁴.

Alternating recollections about being half of a pair of youngsters growing up in the 1960s highlight the sisters' individual personalities⁵ while they relate sisterly connections, competitiveness, and co-option. When Pamela's illness emerged at the beginning of adolescence⁶ and subsequently spiraled out of her control, it became a virtual separate entity⁷ that taxed the limits of the sisters' relationship and continues to test their endurance. This memoir probably afforded its authors great therapeutic⁸ value, but readers struggling with schizophrenic family members may find it too graphic⁹.