Divided Minds

Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia

By: Pamela Spiro Wagner, Carolyn S. Spiro MD

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr, Amanda Carlin

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Growing up in the '50s, Carolyn Spiro was always in the shadow of her more intellectually dominant and social outgoing twin, Pamela. But as the twins approached adolescence, Pamela began to succumb to schizophrenia, hearing disembodied voices and eventually suffering many breakdowns and hospitalizations. 

Divided Minds is a dual memoir of identical twins, one of whom faces a life sentence of schizophrenia and the other who becomes a psychiatrist after entering the spotlight that had for so long been focused on her sister. Told in the alternating voices of the sisters, Divided Minds is a heartbreaking account of the far reaches of madness as well as the depths of ambivalence and love between twins. It is a true and unusually frank story of identical twins with very different identities and wildly different experiences of the world around them.

©2005 Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S. Spiro (P)2018 Tantor

intense!

I have seen the story of these two sisters, but I had not read the book. I could not stop reading I couldn't put it down and the narration was wonderful amazing, I cried with them I love with them I help my brother dumb I felt like I was completely there it is one of the best books on mental illness that I've ever read we need to spread more and more awareness of this disease and more importantly hope.

An incredible memoir

Divided minds is a moving, captivating memoir. The only thing I wish was that the voice actresses sounded less alike. It was hard to distinguish between their voices, often causing me to forget who was the narrator of the chapter. Otherwise, incredible. A must read/listen for every psych student or anyone at all.

Audio narration is intolerable

And so are the twins who come across as horrid as the audio narrator. Waste of money. Read Hidden Valley Road instead.

Very informative

I’ve always been curious about schizophrenia as my father in-law had it. It’s a devastating disease. I think romanticized by the movie A Beautiful Mind. I liked that we had two perspectives. One with the disease and one without.

Wonderfully written and narrated.

Thank you so much for sharing your stories! I feel so much less alone, and stigma decreases.

Good inside story about mental illness in Americas families in the 60-70’s

Gives good insight on how schizophrenia affects people and their families. Also describes how mental illness has progressed since the 60-70’s

Wow!

Wow! This is a very impressive read, written by two talented sisters. Although it occasionally brought tears to my eyes, I could barely put the book down. It is that interesting and well-written. Even though I have read other books about schizophrenia, I feel that I have learned a great deal. I highly recommend this book.

wow

schizophrenia is such a hard thing for non psychic minds to comprehend, even with years of study. I am glad I picked up this book, it has been so eye opening for me to read. that someone in another time and another place could share the same symptoms I've seen in others, some of my most challenging clients. I thank the authors sincerely for writing this book, and I think everyone touched by a psychotic illness no matter how remote should read this book.

great book

I've been hooked on this book since I started listening to it. I love how open it is about schizophrenia