A Hidden Madness, a memoir of a law professor with bipolar disorder, rambles a bit too much, grossly overuses exclamation marks, and fails to show that many of his professional struggles are simply part of legal academia and not necessarily mental illness. However, it also provides a great service of highlighting the problem of stigma on those with mental illness and how that stigma can leave such people feeling alone and unable to do what many of the rest of us do, which is to lean on others during the travels of life.
Professor Jones hid his illness for so long that I suspect he never discussed those struggles with others who experienced them as well—difficult semesters of teaching, courses that go awry, promotion denials, the blank screen and random thoughts while working to produce scholarly works, and conflicts with administration. I have seen colleagues (and myself) experience those things, but we discuss them. But maybe that’s part of why Professor Jones’s problems are more difficult: when many of my colleagues or I have experienced difficulty in academia, we have leaned on each other in the field and found among our colleagues sounding boards. Professor Jones’s illness may have prevented his doing so, and *that* is what made it worse—the working through his struggles by himself.
I was put off by his description of his approach to his first marriage and his feelings toward fatherhood. I do not know, though, how much of that is a product of his mental illness or how much is a consequence of childhood bullying or how his relationship with his mother played a role or if he might just be a bit of a jerk with a superiority complex. I do not know. I suspect, though, that every bit of it is related and comes together to create the whole picture. After all, none of us are made up of a single aspect of our lives; it’s the intersection of so many avenues that meet to create the lives we each live.
Due to the writing quality, I considered abandoning the book, but I did not. I stuck with it, and I am glad I did. For someone who has worked in legal academia, I understand those professional struggles Professor Jones describes. For someone who has studied and worked with those with mental illness, I appreciated the honesty and vulnerability in his sharing his story. And for someone who cares about society, I applaud his courage; I hope his sharing his story makes another dent in the stigma that pervades our culture relating to persons with mental illness.