Embracing the Shadows By Marlene Dunham

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Embracing the Shadows by Marlene Dunham

Embracing The Shadows is a non-fiction narrative about three different types of mental illness in my family of origin, andsearching for answers on how these illnesses were related.I tell of my father’s Manic Depression that went unmedicated until Lithium was FDA approved when I was about seventeen years old along with a pretty harrowing story about the Bellevue Hospital Psych Ward. Secondly, I talk of my brother’s life being institutionalized at the age of 3 ½ because he was severely mentally disabled. He spent 15 years at Willowbrook State School on Staten Island and I give the history of what happened there, starting with Geraldo Rivera’s Expose that led to it’s closing.My sister Lorraine, was diagnosed as schizophrenic around age 16. I delve into the story of her hospitalizations, along with a gripping story of our youngest sibling, only one year old when Lorraine committed suicide, who was not told about her older brother or sister for some years and the effect that had on her. As a photographer, her catharsis was to do a series of photographs depicting what she imagined her sister went through in those years, leading up to the suicide in Greenwich Village in 1967. Those photos are included. Along with the story of she and I going back to the building in Washinton Square in 2009 to see where she died.After telling these stories I do some research into and how Bi-polar, Schizophrenia, and Level 3 Autism (if that was what my brother had) are found to be connected DNA-wise. Followed are chapters about stigma, past and present , and how far we have come in treatment since the days of bloodletting and lobotomies and finally “Hope”. Hope in the areas of genetic research; treatment of Schizophrenia; Technology, including A.I.; and Mental Health Parity.My Epilogue is about the visit my youngest sister and I took to the group home of my brother in Plattsburgh, New York, In October 2023. The last time I had seen him was in Willowbrook, in 1970. Fifty-three years ago.Stacey and Warren had never met.