Both authors tell their stories and describe their experiences growing up, but at some point, taking divergent paths. However, Pamela – who suspects somekind of vague involvement in the killing and is beginning to hear voices – has already begun her sad journey into the endless nightmare of mental illness. Carolyn, the sane sister, is moved somewhat by normal reactions of shock, sadness and fear but it stops there. For example, each woman recalls what she experienced when she was in sixth grade on the day that she learned that President John F. Their major trials are narrated by each in a roughly chronological order. A chapter might cover a day, a week, a month, a season or several years.
Taking turns in alternating chapters, the two gifted authors write their accounts of what took place and how each experienced life through the unique prism of her own mind. So what could have gone wrong? That question is unanswerable from reading their story, but the consequences of whatever malfunctioned become painfully clear. They grew up in thesame family and were treated by their parents and peers in a similar fashion at least until Pamela began to have strange thoughts and behave in a “weird” way starting when the girls were about 12 years old. Having sprung from one egg that divided after fertilization, they share identical genes. In certain respects, their story practically trivializes thenature vs. While Carolyn leads what might be considered a “normal” life, her sister tries to function in the insane and irrational world of the severely schizophrenic.
Initially, Pamela is considered the dominant (and the brighter) twin. Things change, however, as the girls cross into their teens. For those who wish to help the victims, the “journey” is at the very least frustrating, and at the other extreme, almost as difficult as the illness itself.Ĭarolyn and Pamela are identical twins brought up in nearly identical circumstances. For those afflicted, the mind moves between delusion and reality, irrationality and reason. In Greek, schizophrenia means split or divided ( schizo) mind ( phren) andin the book’s title, the authors have captured the essence of the malady.
Martin’s Press, New York, 2005Īfter reading Divided Minds, one can be doubly-sure that not only is schizophrenia a living hell for its hapless victims but that it is hellish for their families and loved ones as well. Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia by Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S.
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