About the Author

Pete Earley, a former reporter for The Washington Post, is the author of several works of nonfiction, including the bestsellers The Hot House and Family of Spies, and the multi-award-winning Circumstantial Evidence. According to the Washingtonian magazine, he is one of ten journalist/authors in America "who have the power to introduce new ideas and give them currency." Earley is also the author of two novels.

Reviews

Praise for Crazy

“A combination of old-fashioned muckraking and genuine empathy...an important manifesto.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Parents of the mentally ill should find solace and food for thought in [this book’s] pages.”—Publishers Weekly

“A case for major policy reform...a harrowing account of a father trying to obtain treatment for his adult son.”—San Antonio Express News

“Crazy is a godsend. It will open the minds of many who make choices for the mentally ill. Countless numbers of us owe Pete Earley and his son Mike a great debt.”—Patty Duke

Like Paul Raeburn in Acquainted with the Night: A Parent's Quest To Understand Depression and Bipolar Disorder in His Children, former Washington Post reporter Earley (Witsec: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program) penetrates the American mental health system in an effort to discover how he can save his son, Mike, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after suffering a breakdown during his senior year in college. Mike's situation escalates when, delusional, he breaks into a home to take a bubble bath and runs up against the criminal justice system. Appalled by the barbarous illogicality of laws that allow mentally ill people like Mike to be punished yet languish untreated, Earley visits prisons, courthouses, hospitals, and assisted-living facilities to explore his options and to expose "mental health madness." In particular, he criticizes the deinsitutionalization movement that released masses of the mentally ill from hospitals and abandoned them to the streets. He also advocates the reform of laws that permit mentally ill patients to refuse treatment and/or medication, even though illness impedes their ability to make competent decisions regarding their own health. Highly recommended for all public and university collections.-Lynne Maxwell, Villanova Univ. Sch. of Law Lib., PA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Praise for Crazy

"A combination of old-fashioned muckraking and genuine empathy...an important manifesto." -The Washington Post Book World

"Parents of the mentally ill should find solace and food for thought in [this book's] pages."-Publishers Weekly

"A case for major policy reform...a harrowing account of a father trying to obtain treatment for his adult son."-San Antonio Express News

"Crazy is a godsend. It will open the minds of many who make choices for the mentally ill. Countless numbers of us owe Pete Earley and his son Mike a great debt."-Patty Duke