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Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So
More than thirty years after the publication of his acclaimed memoir The Eden Express, Mark Vonnegut continues his remarkable story in this searingly funny, iconoclastic account of coping with mental illness, finding his calling as a pediatrician, and learning that willpower isn’t nearly enough.
Here is Mark’s childhood spent as the son of a struggling writer in a house that eventually held seven children after his aunt and uncle died and left four orphans. And here is the world after Mark was released from a mental hospital to find his family forever altered. At the late age of twenty-eight—and after nineteen rejections—Mark was accepted to Harvard Medical School, where he gained purpose, a life, and some control over his condition.
The brilliantly evoked events of Mark Vonnegut’s life are at once perfectly unique and achingly relatable. There are the manic episodes, during which he felt burdened with saving the world, juxtaposed against the real-world responsibilities of running a pediatric practice. At times he felt that his parents’ lives would improve if only they had a few hundred more bucks in their bank account, while at other points his father’s fame merely heightened expectations that he be better, funnier (and crazier) than the average person.
Ultimately a tribute to the small, daily, and positive parts of a life interrupted by bipolar disorder, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is a wise, unsentimental, and inspiring book that will resonate with generations of readers.
Here is Mark’s childhood spent as the son of a struggling writer in a house that eventually held seven children after his aunt and uncle died and left four orphans. And here is the world after Mark was released from a mental hospital to find his family forever altered. At the late age of twenty-eight—and after nineteen rejections—Mark was accepted to Harvard Medical School, where he gained purpose, a life, and some control over his condition.
The brilliantly evoked events of Mark Vonnegut’s life are at once perfectly unique and achingly relatable. There are the manic episodes, during which he felt burdened with saving the world, juxtaposed against the real-world responsibilities of running a pediatric practice. At times he felt that his parents’ lives would improve if only they had a few hundred more bucks in their bank account, while at other points his father’s fame merely heightened expectations that he be better, funnier (and crazier) than the average person.
Ultimately a tribute to the small, daily, and positive parts of a life interrupted by bipolar disorder, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is a wise, unsentimental, and inspiring book that will resonate with generations of readers.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published October 5, 2010
309 people are currently reading
3823 people want to read
About the author
Mark Vonnegut
13 books144 followersMark Twain Vonnegut is an American pediatrician and memoirist. He is the son of the late writer Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and his first wife, Jane Cox. He is also the brother of Edith and Nanette Vonnegut. He described himself in the preface to his 1975 book as "a hippie, son of a counterculture hero, B.A. in religion, (with a) genetic disposition to schizophrenia."
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June 16, 2025
We Aspies - like Mark, his famous father Kurt and me - are Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness... only More So!
So go figure. Like Avis, we TRY harder.
I guess you expect to find an offbeat no-holds barred account on excelling in family medical practice by a respected American paediatrician here?
Well, you Should only expect to find the unexpected! For you may find yourself faced with an utter anomaly.
Mark Vonnegut’s that anomaly.
And he lives it as he sees it - in The World According to Garp!
After all, if you yourself have at any point of your life gone more than slightly bananas and suffered medical confinement for it, you’re FOR SURE gonna see life - and be seen by others - differently!
Especially if you reveal this fact publicly. THEN you’ll be the Odd Duck out! But Mark has done that and faced that kinda music square on...
When a senior doctor pontificates to Mark, while he’s a young intern, that he knows ALL about him (see my notes above) Mark just says please and thank you very much, kind sir, and that’s about it.
In other words, his world-famous Dad - Kurt Vonnegut - woulda said, “So it goes...
“I’ve SEEN THROUGH myself, haven’t you? Or maybe you’d rather hide behind your TITLE - huh???”
But of COURSE Mark doesn’t say it, though Kurt woulda. Mark's a nice guy.
No, you don’t get through Harvard Medical School by stepping on too many well-heeled toes. Breakdowns teach us etiquette.
After his first “mother of all breakdowns”, off by himself in remote rainforested British Columbia in a 60’s commune - read all about it in Mark’s classic The Eden Express - he told the WHOLE INCREDULOUS WORLD his story (and affirmed my own way of looking at it, back then, in my own struggling ex-Hippie lifestyle)!
And that’s how this doctor knew, obviously.
And do you know what saved Mark?
What saved him was when his famous Dad drove all the way across the North American continent and up into Canada - in the beat-up old jalopy that was HIS excuse for not keeping up with the Joneses - to rescue him and bring him all the way back to Greater Boston for treatment, that’s what.
As MY Dad dropped everything for me, similarly, when I was in trouble.
If I sound at all logical nowadays it’s because of him! Same goes for Mark with his Dad... (say, Mark, may we now refer to YOUR Dad as DOCTOR Kurt Vonnegut, famed author of Slaughterhouse Five???)
Any bets, folks, that Kurt’s selfless common-sense love and support is the reason Mark made it through Harvard without a hitch?
All MY chips are on that lucky number!
You know, some dads aren’t DEMONSTRABLY loving. Their silences say it all. That’s the way my Dad is!
And Kurt’s caring kindness musta SPOKE VOLUMES every silent, loving mile of the way back to Boston. Do I sense the confirmation of your lifetime Role Model, Mark?
And who was awarded MY university degree? Shoulda been my Dad (for he gets all the credit in my mind)! How would you like an English Lit degree to go with your PhD in Biology, Dr. Dad?
So, back to my first question: what will you find in this book (other than a warm, witty look at the high points - and the non-sequitur nadirs - of a life in paediatric medicine)?
I think you’ll find a book in a direct, no-punches-pulled, quirky, oddball style of writing, much like the style of other psychiatric veterans - myself included.
And much like Kurt Vonnegut. You see, when you’re on a psychological freefall you quickly become a victim of the Absurd. And all your family suffers from the fallout.
Up is down, and down is up.
But if you don’t believe we can ever be more than poor souls who deserve your sly jibes, look at what Mark accomplished, and shake in your boots. And Kurt - sure nuff - matured as a writer after saving his son.
You’ll see his Real Self when you’re reading his later novels, for example. Pulling his punches was no longer his bag, for he Knew his son was the Establishment’s new Whipping Boy.
Yeah.
Kurt Vonnegut ensured, as my Dad did, that his son would always weather the storms all us risk-takers take on themselves - by means of that same blind faith and courage which he himself showed in his NEW, direct style -
So that Mark, his beloved brightest son, not only SURVIVED... but PROSPERED.
So go figure. Like Avis, we TRY harder.
I guess you expect to find an offbeat no-holds barred account on excelling in family medical practice by a respected American paediatrician here?
Well, you Should only expect to find the unexpected! For you may find yourself faced with an utter anomaly.
Mark Vonnegut’s that anomaly.
And he lives it as he sees it - in The World According to Garp!
After all, if you yourself have at any point of your life gone more than slightly bananas and suffered medical confinement for it, you’re FOR SURE gonna see life - and be seen by others - differently!
Especially if you reveal this fact publicly. THEN you’ll be the Odd Duck out! But Mark has done that and faced that kinda music square on...
When a senior doctor pontificates to Mark, while he’s a young intern, that he knows ALL about him (see my notes above) Mark just says please and thank you very much, kind sir, and that’s about it.
In other words, his world-famous Dad - Kurt Vonnegut - woulda said, “So it goes...
“I’ve SEEN THROUGH myself, haven’t you? Or maybe you’d rather hide behind your TITLE - huh???”
But of COURSE Mark doesn’t say it, though Kurt woulda. Mark's a nice guy.
No, you don’t get through Harvard Medical School by stepping on too many well-heeled toes. Breakdowns teach us etiquette.
After his first “mother of all breakdowns”, off by himself in remote rainforested British Columbia in a 60’s commune - read all about it in Mark’s classic The Eden Express - he told the WHOLE INCREDULOUS WORLD his story (and affirmed my own way of looking at it, back then, in my own struggling ex-Hippie lifestyle)!
And that’s how this doctor knew, obviously.
And do you know what saved Mark?
What saved him was when his famous Dad drove all the way across the North American continent and up into Canada - in the beat-up old jalopy that was HIS excuse for not keeping up with the Joneses - to rescue him and bring him all the way back to Greater Boston for treatment, that’s what.
As MY Dad dropped everything for me, similarly, when I was in trouble.
If I sound at all logical nowadays it’s because of him! Same goes for Mark with his Dad... (say, Mark, may we now refer to YOUR Dad as DOCTOR Kurt Vonnegut, famed author of Slaughterhouse Five???)
Any bets, folks, that Kurt’s selfless common-sense love and support is the reason Mark made it through Harvard without a hitch?
All MY chips are on that lucky number!
You know, some dads aren’t DEMONSTRABLY loving. Their silences say it all. That’s the way my Dad is!
And Kurt’s caring kindness musta SPOKE VOLUMES every silent, loving mile of the way back to Boston. Do I sense the confirmation of your lifetime Role Model, Mark?
And who was awarded MY university degree? Shoulda been my Dad (for he gets all the credit in my mind)! How would you like an English Lit degree to go with your PhD in Biology, Dr. Dad?
So, back to my first question: what will you find in this book (other than a warm, witty look at the high points - and the non-sequitur nadirs - of a life in paediatric medicine)?
I think you’ll find a book in a direct, no-punches-pulled, quirky, oddball style of writing, much like the style of other psychiatric veterans - myself included.
And much like Kurt Vonnegut. You see, when you’re on a psychological freefall you quickly become a victim of the Absurd. And all your family suffers from the fallout.
Up is down, and down is up.
But if you don’t believe we can ever be more than poor souls who deserve your sly jibes, look at what Mark accomplished, and shake in your boots. And Kurt - sure nuff - matured as a writer after saving his son.
You’ll see his Real Self when you’re reading his later novels, for example. Pulling his punches was no longer his bag, for he Knew his son was the Establishment’s new Whipping Boy.
Yeah.
Kurt Vonnegut ensured, as my Dad did, that his son would always weather the storms all us risk-takers take on themselves - by means of that same blind faith and courage which he himself showed in his NEW, direct style -
So that Mark, his beloved brightest son, not only SURVIVED... but PROSPERED.
February 2, 2015
I bought this book for my son who loves Kurt Vonnegut, has bi-polar disorder and is in med school. He finished it in a little over a day (without sacrificing his studies) and promptly bought a copy for me and my husband (also bi-polar). I was concurrently scared and hopeful as I read Vonnegut's account of his disease. Living with the disease in my household, I still don't understand what's going on most of the time. I appreciated the author's assertion that most people do not realize the heroism needed to survive mental illness. Vonnegut writes with humor, honesty and hope. This is the latest book that I am recommending to almost everyone I know.
August 24, 2010
If your child were sick, would you choose a 60+-year old pediatrician who is a former commune-starting hippie, is the son of a famous author, came from a somewhat dysfunctional childhood, got into Harvard Medical School despite poor grades, and most important of all, is certifiably crazy? I think I would. I believe that if I were to meet him, I would really like and trust this guy.
Mark Vonnegut first wrote about his battle with mental illness in a 1975 book, The Eden Express. This followup came many years and one additional psychotic episode later. Although this is less autobiographical than his first book, the doctor is still very open about his life, about what happened to him in the intervening years, about living with mental illness, alcoholism, and a family where both seem to be hereditary trait . However, it is also about his thoughts on the current medical system in America, treating teenagers who have a drug habit, a little bit of philosophy, and a man who wants to be useful, normal. It is about what mental illness feels like from someone who knows.
The advance uncorrected proof that I read is a short and easy read at just over 200 pages. There are a few awkward sentences that may stay as they are or perhaps will be changed. Some of the quotes that stuck with me may change in the published edition.
Medical care has become a lot of crust and precious little pie.
I can pass for normal most of the time, but I understand perfectly why some of my autistic patients scream and flap their arms – it's to frighten off extroverts.
There are no people anywhere who don't have some mental illness. It all depends on where you set the bar and how hard you look. What is a myth is that we are mostly mentally well most of the time.
And this, which is one of the saddest sentences I've read:
At my most pathetic, when I felt lost and very sorry for myself, and was no longer in charge of making breakfast and packing lunches for my boys, I set up a bird feeder on the ledge of my apartment overlooking a parking lot and no birds came.
This is engaging read for anyone who would like a glimpse into the head of someone determined not to let the voices in his head win. And although it is not necessary, I was glad that I read The Eden Express before I read this book.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Mark Vonnegut first wrote about his battle with mental illness in a 1975 book, The Eden Express. This followup came many years and one additional psychotic episode later. Although this is less autobiographical than his first book, the doctor is still very open about his life, about what happened to him in the intervening years, about living with mental illness, alcoholism, and a family where both seem to be hereditary trait . However, it is also about his thoughts on the current medical system in America, treating teenagers who have a drug habit, a little bit of philosophy, and a man who wants to be useful, normal. It is about what mental illness feels like from someone who knows.
The advance uncorrected proof that I read is a short and easy read at just over 200 pages. There are a few awkward sentences that may stay as they are or perhaps will be changed. Some of the quotes that stuck with me may change in the published edition.
Medical care has become a lot of crust and precious little pie.
I can pass for normal most of the time, but I understand perfectly why some of my autistic patients scream and flap their arms – it's to frighten off extroverts.
There are no people anywhere who don't have some mental illness. It all depends on where you set the bar and how hard you look. What is a myth is that we are mostly mentally well most of the time.
And this, which is one of the saddest sentences I've read:
At my most pathetic, when I felt lost and very sorry for myself, and was no longer in charge of making breakfast and packing lunches for my boys, I set up a bird feeder on the ledge of my apartment overlooking a parking lot and no birds came.
This is engaging read for anyone who would like a glimpse into the head of someone determined not to let the voices in his head win. And although it is not necessary, I was glad that I read The Eden Express before I read this book.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.
July 13, 2015
In the 1960’s, Mark Vonnegut, son of iconic author Kurt Vonnegut Jr., went to British Columbia to start a commune. He dropped a lot of acid, went crazy, and ended up on the psych ward getting electro-shock treatment and Thorazine. His first memoir,
The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity
chronicles all that.
After the book was published, Mark recovered well enough to get into Harvard Medical School and is a practicing pediatrician till today. That may sound like a happy ending, but no life wraps itself up in a perfect bow. Dr. Vonnegut did crack up fourteen years later even though he was living the Harvard-certified life of an accomplished physician. This memoir, written decades after the first, covers that breakdown and recovery with plenty of social commentary sprinkled in. Some Goodreaders found these asides too choppy, but I value Dr. Vonnegut’s insights, particularly into how insurance is ruining the practice of medicine. I’d trust Dr. Vonnegut with my own kids. What other doctor knows both sides of drugs and mental illness so thoroughly?
As a memoir, The Eden Express is the better book. This one tried to fit much more time into far fewer pages. Still, it was a worthy follow-up. Dr. Vonnegut has maintained his 1960’s idealism while trimming off its excesses. He’s middle of the road on the practice of psychiatry – skeptical of medications, but a harsh critic of R.D. Laing’s drug-free approach.
If you care about mental health - and according to Mark, we're all challenged in that department - read both books in chronological order. The first book will enhance your appreciation of the second. Just like his father, Mark Vonnegut has the measure of our culture.
After the book was published, Mark recovered well enough to get into Harvard Medical School and is a practicing pediatrician till today. That may sound like a happy ending, but no life wraps itself up in a perfect bow. Dr. Vonnegut did crack up fourteen years later even though he was living the Harvard-certified life of an accomplished physician. This memoir, written decades after the first, covers that breakdown and recovery with plenty of social commentary sprinkled in. Some Goodreaders found these asides too choppy, but I value Dr. Vonnegut’s insights, particularly into how insurance is ruining the practice of medicine. I’d trust Dr. Vonnegut with my own kids. What other doctor knows both sides of drugs and mental illness so thoroughly?
As a memoir, The Eden Express is the better book. This one tried to fit much more time into far fewer pages. Still, it was a worthy follow-up. Dr. Vonnegut has maintained his 1960’s idealism while trimming off its excesses. He’s middle of the road on the practice of psychiatry – skeptical of medications, but a harsh critic of R.D. Laing’s drug-free approach.
If you care about mental health - and according to Mark, we're all challenged in that department - read both books in chronological order. The first book will enhance your appreciation of the second. Just like his father, Mark Vonnegut has the measure of our culture.
December 15, 2010
my rating is horribly harsh. so sorry, mark vonnegut. it's just that your memoir tells me nothing. it tells me a bit of what it's like to be psychotic, but that's not hard-to-get knowledge. it also tells me a bit about what it's like to have been a doctor before and after the advent of managed care. that's easy-to-get knowledge too. it tells me a little bit about kurt vonnegut and being his son, but i am not very interested in that (a kurt vonnegut fan might be, but she might want to be warned that there are just little vignettes, not all of them meaningful). i like fragmented, episodic, disjointed writing like the next person, but it's a hard style to pull off -- not because it's hard to write in fragments but because it's hard to preserve a sense of narrative, coherence, and unity throughout the fragmentation. i'm not upholding the ideal of aristotelian unity, just a sense of what it is like to write. writing is stringing ideas together: the thread doesn't have to be visible or strong but it must be there, because that thread is what constitute meaning. fragmentation and meaning are opposites, even though the latter can never overcome the former.
i am sympathetic to the tragedy and humiliation of so many (four!) psychotic breakdowns, and admiring of your success in the face of such challenges. i also thing you turn out a good sentence. i just wish i had gotten something more out of your book.
[i don't like, typically, reviews that address books' authors, but i have discovered to my great embarrassment that authors read these reviews! nooooooooooo!!!!! so, if i have to write a negative review, i want to make sure i address the author, and say how sorry i am not to have liked (gotten?) his (in this case) book]
ETA: i changed my rating cuz i felt an eel.
i am sympathetic to the tragedy and humiliation of so many (four!) psychotic breakdowns, and admiring of your success in the face of such challenges. i also thing you turn out a good sentence. i just wish i had gotten something more out of your book.
[i don't like, typically, reviews that address books' authors, but i have discovered to my great embarrassment that authors read these reviews! nooooooooooo!!!!! so, if i have to write a negative review, i want to make sure i address the author, and say how sorry i am not to have liked (gotten?) his (in this case) book]
ETA: i changed my rating cuz i felt an eel.
July 24, 2011
Strong first two thirds, wandering last third. Powerful description of psychosis and the slide into it. Having finished it, I still flipped back and reread page 48 because it's honest and beautiful.
p. 47-48
"Part of getting better from being crazy included the realization that my life might be a lot longer than I had thought and that I probably wasn't going to get out of anything by having the world end of Western civilization collapse.
It was too bad I was twenty-five, hadn't taken the right courses, and had this mental health history. I had a mental health history, the way other people might have a suitcase.
...
My illness became a compass of sorts. I could ask myself whether something was leading me away from or closer to being crazy. There was less of the "six of this, half dozen of that" that had made up so much of life.
...
If you take good care of any disease by eating well, sleeping well, being aware of your health, consciously wanting to be well, not smoking, et cetera, you are doing all the same things you should be doing anyway, but somehow having a disease makes them easier to do. A human without a disease is like a ship without a rudder.
...
Being normal with a vengeance was a big step up from being mentally ill, but it wasn't without its problems.
...
Everyone needs reassurance that the beast has been contained. If you're going to go nuts over and over, why bother to get an education, a job, or a date for Saturday night?"
p. 47-48
"Part of getting better from being crazy included the realization that my life might be a lot longer than I had thought and that I probably wasn't going to get out of anything by having the world end of Western civilization collapse.
It was too bad I was twenty-five, hadn't taken the right courses, and had this mental health history. I had a mental health history, the way other people might have a suitcase.
...
My illness became a compass of sorts. I could ask myself whether something was leading me away from or closer to being crazy. There was less of the "six of this, half dozen of that" that had made up so much of life.
...
If you take good care of any disease by eating well, sleeping well, being aware of your health, consciously wanting to be well, not smoking, et cetera, you are doing all the same things you should be doing anyway, but somehow having a disease makes them easier to do. A human without a disease is like a ship without a rudder.
...
Being normal with a vengeance was a big step up from being mentally ill, but it wasn't without its problems.
...
Everyone needs reassurance that the beast has been contained. If you're going to go nuts over and over, why bother to get an education, a job, or a date for Saturday night?"
May 3, 2011
A book with no segues.
I'm not sure if it's just Mark Vonnegut's style, or if this indicative of someone living with mental illness, but the writing had this staccato quality. Ideas jumped from one paragraph to the next. There would be sentences in the middle of paragraphs that didn't seem to connect to much around it.
It's kind of like the old-timey comedians whose routines were:
Set-up, Punchline, Laughter...Set-up, Punchline, Laughter... lather, rinse, repeat. Except this book isn't exactly funny. It was small anecdote, pithy sentence, small anecdote. All this is wrapped up in chapters that revolve around an event or idea.
That's not to say that there aren't great, quotable sentences in the book. I was just hoping for more of a narrative to the musings.
I'm always interested in diseases of the brain, insights into how that lump of gray matter functions, and particularly stories of how it can all go wrong. Things have gone wrong in Mark Vonnegut's brain - he's a highly intelligent guy who also happens to have bipolar disorder. He's suffered several major breakdowns, although not for years, and he also grew up in a weird, somewhat abusive family. And yet he's been able to become a practicing pediatrician, have a family, recover from alcoholism.
It's that recovery and coping I was most curious to read about. You do get a few insights into the doctor's life and coping mechanisms. Unfortunately, you also get long, multiple rants about the poor state of the US healthcare system, particularly insurance companies. You're preaching to the choir, Mark.
Funnily, those medical rants were the most coherent and well-strung together parts of the book.
I'm not sure if it's just Mark Vonnegut's style, or if this indicative of someone living with mental illness, but the writing had this staccato quality. Ideas jumped from one paragraph to the next. There would be sentences in the middle of paragraphs that didn't seem to connect to much around it.
It's kind of like the old-timey comedians whose routines were:
Set-up, Punchline, Laughter...Set-up, Punchline, Laughter... lather, rinse, repeat. Except this book isn't exactly funny. It was small anecdote, pithy sentence, small anecdote. All this is wrapped up in chapters that revolve around an event or idea.
That's not to say that there aren't great, quotable sentences in the book. I was just hoping for more of a narrative to the musings.
I'm always interested in diseases of the brain, insights into how that lump of gray matter functions, and particularly stories of how it can all go wrong. Things have gone wrong in Mark Vonnegut's brain - he's a highly intelligent guy who also happens to have bipolar disorder. He's suffered several major breakdowns, although not for years, and he also grew up in a weird, somewhat abusive family. And yet he's been able to become a practicing pediatrician, have a family, recover from alcoholism.
It's that recovery and coping I was most curious to read about. You do get a few insights into the doctor's life and coping mechanisms. Unfortunately, you also get long, multiple rants about the poor state of the US healthcare system, particularly insurance companies. You're preaching to the choir, Mark.
Funnily, those medical rants were the most coherent and well-strung together parts of the book.
October 5, 2010
There are certain books you read during your life that stick with you. For me, one of those is one I first read while still in college, Mark Vonnegut's
The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity
. First published in 1975 (and reissued in 2002), the book is a frank and compelling story of a young man's descent into schizophrenia and his recovery from it.
In the introduction to that book, Vonnegut, the son of author Kurt Vonnegut, described himself as "a hippie, a son of a counterculture hero, a B.A. in religion [with a] a genetic biochemical predisposition to schizophrenia." He and friends established a commune in a remote area of British Columbia but the mysticism he sensed he was experiencing led in 1971 to his hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital in Vancouver for what was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia. Eden Express details that journey, two subsequent hospitalizations and his efforts toward recovery.
Although Vonnegut has since come to believe what he really suffered from was a combination of what is now know as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, his recovery has been equally remarkable. Not only did he return to "normal" life, he attended Harvard Medical School and has been a practicing pediatrician in the Boston area sine the early 1980s. With his follow-up memoir, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So , he takes takes readers on that journey -- and his fourth psychiatric breakdown "when the voices came back" more than 14 years after his last breakdown.
As a fan of Eden Express, I must admit I approached Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So with a bit of trepidation. I didn't want anything to take away my favorable impression of the first book (although rereading it before the new book arguably have increased that risk). Yet the new book drew me in as much as the first and I found it just as compelling. Not only does Vonnegut he again provide insight into the lives of those who confront mental illnesses, the book gives us a real glimpse of the type of person and doctor he is, his bout with alcoholism, and a look at how the practice of medicine has changed in the last 25 years. ("Every bright idea that was supposed to improve medical care has made care worse, usually by increasing costs and restricting access.")
Eden Express was marked by its frank yet conversational tone. A similar approach helps make Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So as good as the predecessor. The two books, though, are different. The new one break the story into smaller segments as opposed to lengthier chapters. It also has more echoes of his father's style and wit. For example, if he's been doing so well, why does he continue to see a psychiatrist? His response is a simple, Vonnegutesque one: "Over the years I've come to care about Ned and, and I think I go mostly to make sure he's okay." Or, he notes at one point, "I have so many original thoughts I have to take medication for it."
This approach enhances the readability of a story that gives an idea of the life of a "regular" person dealing with existing or quiescent mental illness and how easy it can be to slip into a manic-depressive or schizophrenic state.
Still, Vonnegut never suggests he possesses some unique quality or strength that gave him advantages in recovering.
Yet even that doesn't ensure there will never be recurrences. In fact, Vonnegut's fourth breakdown found him taken by police from his home in a straitjacket when he tried, unsuccessfully, to run through a third-floor window to prove to God that he was worthy of saving and "not just a selfish little shit." Vonnegut says that when the voices he heard in the early 1970s came back, "it was like we picked up in the middle of a conversation that had been interrupted just a few minutes earlier." The manic part of his bipolar disorder manic depression makes it that much more difficult. Vonnegut describes the slide into mental illness as a "grammatical shift. Thoughts come into the mind as firmly established truth. ... The fantastic presents itself as fact."
Once again, though, the hospitalization, together with medication and support, allowed Vonnegut to return to a normal life, including the practice of medicine. He forthrightly examines not only the role of medication but the treatment he underwent in the 1970s and explores the extent to which family heredity can play a role in a person's psychiatric state.
Fortunately, Vonnegut did not just return to the practice of medicine but also to memoir. Taken together, Eden Express and Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So are an excellent survey of a life affected by mental illness. Yet with its style, tone and frank manner of addressing serious issues and events, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So earns a place on anyone's bookshelf on its own merits. It is the most insightful and enjoyable memoir I've read in a long time.
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)
In the introduction to that book, Vonnegut, the son of author Kurt Vonnegut, described himself as "a hippie, a son of a counterculture hero, a B.A. in religion [with a] a genetic biochemical predisposition to schizophrenia." He and friends established a commune in a remote area of British Columbia but the mysticism he sensed he was experiencing led in 1971 to his hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital in Vancouver for what was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia. Eden Express details that journey, two subsequent hospitalizations and his efforts toward recovery.
Although Vonnegut has since come to believe what he really suffered from was a combination of what is now know as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, his recovery has been equally remarkable. Not only did he return to "normal" life, he attended Harvard Medical School and has been a practicing pediatrician in the Boston area sine the early 1980s. With his follow-up memoir, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So , he takes takes readers on that journey -- and his fourth psychiatric breakdown "when the voices came back" more than 14 years after his last breakdown.
As a fan of Eden Express, I must admit I approached Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So with a bit of trepidation. I didn't want anything to take away my favorable impression of the first book (although rereading it before the new book arguably have increased that risk). Yet the new book drew me in as much as the first and I found it just as compelling. Not only does Vonnegut he again provide insight into the lives of those who confront mental illnesses, the book gives us a real glimpse of the type of person and doctor he is, his bout with alcoholism, and a look at how the practice of medicine has changed in the last 25 years. ("Every bright idea that was supposed to improve medical care has made care worse, usually by increasing costs and restricting access.")
Eden Express was marked by its frank yet conversational tone. A similar approach helps make Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So as good as the predecessor. The two books, though, are different. The new one break the story into smaller segments as opposed to lengthier chapters. It also has more echoes of his father's style and wit. For example, if he's been doing so well, why does he continue to see a psychiatrist? His response is a simple, Vonnegutesque one: "Over the years I've come to care about Ned and, and I think I go mostly to make sure he's okay." Or, he notes at one point, "I have so many original thoughts I have to take medication for it."
This approach enhances the readability of a story that gives an idea of the life of a "regular" person dealing with existing or quiescent mental illness and how easy it can be to slip into a manic-depressive or schizophrenic state.
Still, Vonnegut never suggests he possesses some unique quality or strength that gave him advantages in recovering.
None of us are entirely well, and none of us are irrevocably sick. At my best I have islands of being sick entirely. At my worst I had islands of being well. Except for a reluctance to give up on myself there isn't anything I can claim credit for that helped me recover from my breaks. Even that doesn't count. You either have or don't have a reluctance to give up on yourself. It helps a lot if others don't give up on you.
Yet even that doesn't ensure there will never be recurrences. In fact, Vonnegut's fourth breakdown found him taken by police from his home in a straitjacket when he tried, unsuccessfully, to run through a third-floor window to prove to God that he was worthy of saving and "not just a selfish little shit." Vonnegut says that when the voices he heard in the early 1970s came back, "it was like we picked up in the middle of a conversation that had been interrupted just a few minutes earlier." The manic part of his bipolar disorder manic depression makes it that much more difficult. Vonnegut describes the slide into mental illness as a "grammatical shift. Thoughts come into the mind as firmly established truth. ... The fantastic presents itself as fact."
Once again, though, the hospitalization, together with medication and support, allowed Vonnegut to return to a normal life, including the practice of medicine. He forthrightly examines not only the role of medication but the treatment he underwent in the 1970s and explores the extent to which family heredity can play a role in a person's psychiatric state.
Fortunately, Vonnegut did not just return to the practice of medicine but also to memoir. Taken together, Eden Express and Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So are an excellent survey of a life affected by mental illness. Yet with its style, tone and frank manner of addressing serious issues and events, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So earns a place on anyone's bookshelf on its own merits. It is the most insightful and enjoyable memoir I've read in a long time.
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)
April 28, 2011
This is a nice little romp through the life of Kurt Vonnegut’s son Mark. He was diagnosed with Schizophrenia in 1971 when he had three psychotic breaks in a short amount of time. He didn’t have his fourth break until 14 years later. In those 14 years he managed to get accepted to Harvard medical school and become a pediatrician. Not bad.
The book covers topics like mental illness and addiction, but not as extensively as it might seem from the title. The bulk of the focus is on what’s wrong with the health care system in America. Mark has the unique perspective of having been a patient and a doctor. During his fourth break, he was taken in a straightjacket to the hospital where he did his residency. Yikes.
Quotes
The biggest gift of being unambiguously mentally ill is the time I’ve saved myself trying to be normal.
The only thing I really had come to believe in, more than any specific therapy, was the medical model itself, which got rid of shame, blame, and other hurtful voodoo.
Scrubs were not made to be worn outside the OR, where they were always covered by sterile gowns, but as soon as the first absentminded surgeon went out of the OR in scrubs, fashion history was made.
The beginning of the end was when we were told we couldn’t give out advice on the phone anymore; everyone had to be told to come in and be seen… Ninety percent of what gets treated in today’s ERs at a cost of billions of dollars, zillions of unnecessary tests, and eons of waiting would go away if people could just talk with a well-trained senior resident.
It’s probably possible to gain humility by means other than repeated humiliation, but repeated humiliation works very well.
It’s not easy to go from being one of the seven righteous pillars holding up the planet to being just another mental patient.
The process whereby one gets to be a doctor is one where you pretty much have to be a grade-and-approval junky. This eventually has unfortunate consequences… The courage to do the right thing in the face of disapproval is often lacking.
Beyond a certain point, gathering further evidence of the hurtfulness and shortcomings of one’s family, employer, et cetera is like eating the same poisonous mushroom over and over and expecting that sooner or later it will be nutritious.
Peace of mind is inversely proportional to expectations.
Addictive drugs take all your little problems, like having a difficult family or feeling insecure, and trade them in for one big problem, having to have drugs.
The book covers topics like mental illness and addiction, but not as extensively as it might seem from the title. The bulk of the focus is on what’s wrong with the health care system in America. Mark has the unique perspective of having been a patient and a doctor. During his fourth break, he was taken in a straightjacket to the hospital where he did his residency. Yikes.
Quotes
The biggest gift of being unambiguously mentally ill is the time I’ve saved myself trying to be normal.
The only thing I really had come to believe in, more than any specific therapy, was the medical model itself, which got rid of shame, blame, and other hurtful voodoo.
Scrubs were not made to be worn outside the OR, where they were always covered by sterile gowns, but as soon as the first absentminded surgeon went out of the OR in scrubs, fashion history was made.
The beginning of the end was when we were told we couldn’t give out advice on the phone anymore; everyone had to be told to come in and be seen… Ninety percent of what gets treated in today’s ERs at a cost of billions of dollars, zillions of unnecessary tests, and eons of waiting would go away if people could just talk with a well-trained senior resident.
It’s probably possible to gain humility by means other than repeated humiliation, but repeated humiliation works very well.
It’s not easy to go from being one of the seven righteous pillars holding up the planet to being just another mental patient.
The process whereby one gets to be a doctor is one where you pretty much have to be a grade-and-approval junky. This eventually has unfortunate consequences… The courage to do the right thing in the face of disapproval is often lacking.
Beyond a certain point, gathering further evidence of the hurtfulness and shortcomings of one’s family, employer, et cetera is like eating the same poisonous mushroom over and over and expecting that sooner or later it will be nutritious.
Peace of mind is inversely proportional to expectations.
Addictive drugs take all your little problems, like having a difficult family or feeling insecure, and trade them in for one big problem, having to have drugs.
October 17, 2010
This book is amazing. Mark Vonnegut is Kurt Vonnegut's son. He has what has been diagnosed as bipolar disorder. After 3 psychotic breaks in early adulthood requiring hospitalizations, he thought, "What did I want to be before all this happened?" His answer-- a doctor. He applied to 20 medical schools and was rejected by all but one-- Harvard. He's now 62, a pediatrician, a husband and dad, and the author of two books, including this remarkable, clear and authentic memoir. I love books that provide a window into people's unique experience-- this is a very special one.
September 6, 2017
Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is certainly not a perfect book. The premise is different from what is actually delivered and the writing style is jumpy. However, I liked all that. I felt like the jumpy writing style was either an intentional choice, echoing the thought process in psychotic and manic episodes, or something that was a result of those episodes and had just become second nature to Vonnegut (I am probably wrong). Either way, it felt like a great way to gain insight into such a thought process (and was a very familiar one for me as I have ADHD).
I felt like JLSWMIOMS wasn't as much about his mental illness as I expected. There was of course a great deal devoted to it, all well written, but the medical career he embarked on seemed to shine. That's where he really grabbed me. I am not the biggest fan of doctors especially due to the way capitalism and medicine hold hands nowadays but Vonnegut seems like a very aware and empathetic man.
He wasn't a doctor because he wanted to be great or notable or make money.. He was an astute guy who dealt with kids who had nothing wrong with them most of time and had suffered the embarrassment of being institutionalized in his own workplace. I liked that.
I grew up with a nurse for a mother and so all the observations about over worried parents or under worried parents and all the unnecessary tests were quite familiar.
His observations on medicine are what grabbed me and really held me on through this book. It was a humble and simple ride that offered much in only 200 pages. 3.5/5 stars.
I felt like JLSWMIOMS wasn't as much about his mental illness as I expected. There was of course a great deal devoted to it, all well written, but the medical career he embarked on seemed to shine. That's where he really grabbed me. I am not the biggest fan of doctors especially due to the way capitalism and medicine hold hands nowadays but Vonnegut seems like a very aware and empathetic man.
He wasn't a doctor because he wanted to be great or notable or make money.. He was an astute guy who dealt with kids who had nothing wrong with them most of time and had suffered the embarrassment of being institutionalized in his own workplace. I liked that.
I grew up with a nurse for a mother and so all the observations about over worried parents or under worried parents and all the unnecessary tests were quite familiar.
His observations on medicine are what grabbed me and really held me on through this book. It was a humble and simple ride that offered much in only 200 pages. 3.5/5 stars.
October 17, 2021
Vonnegut is a combination of 2 of my favourite genres of people…a doctor who’s a good writer & someone with mental illness who’s a good writer. The narrative had the same structural integrity as the houses in a Dr Seuss book, but in the end it all came together in its own messy way. 🍄
November 14, 2025
Has a few inspirational paragraphs and "there is no what if during a breakdown" but does not look at his mental illness inside out nor outside in so a layman can understand. A nice travel story of doctoring in Honduras. Kurt dies. something mushrooms. the end.
March 15, 2011
I was living on a commune...yadda yadda yadda...woke up in a mental institution. Squirrels gather nuts.I became a doctor before health insurance. I went to Harvard. Trees have leaves. My dad was a weird guy. Heard voices. Had my second break.
This is what it's like to read this book. Completely disjointed, never giving a clear description about anything. In fact, the clearest he got was writing about being a pediatrician before managed health care- but the book isn't call "Just like someone without a Doctor Degree Only More So..."
This is what it's like to read this book. Completely disjointed, never giving a clear description about anything. In fact, the clearest he got was writing about being a pediatrician before managed health care- but the book isn't call "Just like someone without a Doctor Degree Only More So..."
July 24, 2018
Mark Vonnegut seems like a lovely man and there are a selection of well articulated insights into living with bipolar in this book. Overall though, I feel it was a bit like someone's description of a random dream they had-lacking in coherent narrative structure and deeply tedious. It's 80% tangents, and the most interesting one is about mushrooms. Good on him for writing it though. I feel encouraged to be comfortably ordinary.
Read
August 3, 2025It's been nearly three years since I read Eden Express and this book in quick succession, which means I shouldn't write a review. Anyhow, I remember thinking that Eden Express was technically less impressive, yet still offered more than this book did. This one felt more intentional and, for it, more withholding. I found Eden Express more personal; it wasn't trying to speak to a crowd or sell any particular ideas; it was written out of necessity, messy and insecure for anyone who could care. That desperation met me well, while this one felt more like a Barnes & Noble display book I ought not to have bagged. I felt less reading this one. Though, I was reassured to see even nuts can get jobs, and families, and smaller problems like sobriety. If only I'd stayed pre-med.
Concluding, I'd stand by this: the two books should be read together if they are to be read at all.
Concluding, I'd stand by this: the two books should be read together if they are to be read at all.
March 29, 2022
“Why is there so much meaning when a mind breaks? Why isn't it all just static and nonsense?”
This is a short memoir by a pediatrician who happened to have a dad who made the big-time after his formative years. It's about trying to build something of your life and have schizoaffective disorder blow it open - to your own confusion and bemusement.
This is a great book for all the things that are described above but mostly because you get the sense that Mark is just a real, genuinely, warm guy and it's a pleasure to spend time with him. So much of his approach to life: his ailing marriage, breakdowns, his challenging relationships with parents and relatives is handled with grace. Which brings me to another quote:
Vonnegut is not speaking here about himself, but someone he aspires to be like and that's another thing I loved about this book: how open he is about where he wants to be versus where he is and how he shares what he's learnt along the way.
I recognized a lot of my own struggles in his words and methods. Especially towards the start of his fourth breakdown.
This isn't as bleak nor perhaps as memorable as The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays but it's just as a fascinating insight into the mind of someone with a psychosis-inducing mental illness. His observations about being a doctor in the US over the last 30 or so years and how the pharmaceutical industry has shaped medical are also timely. One wonders how much of the shift he describes was youthful naïveté vs the industry.
I mostly gave this 5 stars because I felt I'd found a kindred spirit, and isn't it wonderful when someone you've never met, from an entirely different gender/generation/nationality finds you across the page like that?
One more thought, something hopeful, to end on:
This is a short memoir by a pediatrician who happened to have a dad who made the big-time after his formative years. It's about trying to build something of your life and have schizoaffective disorder blow it open - to your own confusion and bemusement.
This is a great book for all the things that are described above but mostly because you get the sense that Mark is just a real, genuinely, warm guy and it's a pleasure to spend time with him. So much of his approach to life: his ailing marriage, breakdowns, his challenging relationships with parents and relatives is handled with grace. Which brings me to another quote:
His romance and charm lay in how well he did with what might have been and how gracefully he accepted what was.
Vonnegut is not speaking here about himself, but someone he aspires to be like and that's another thing I loved about this book: how open he is about where he wants to be versus where he is and how he shares what he's learnt along the way.
I recognized a lot of my own struggles in his words and methods. Especially towards the start of his fourth breakdown.
With mental illness the trick is to not take your feelings so seriously; you’re zooming in and zooming away from things that go from being too important to being not important at all.
This isn't as bleak nor perhaps as memorable as The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays but it's just as a fascinating insight into the mind of someone with a psychosis-inducing mental illness. His observations about being a doctor in the US over the last 30 or so years and how the pharmaceutical industry has shaped medical are also timely. One wonders how much of the shift he describes was youthful naïveté vs the industry.
I mostly gave this 5 stars because I felt I'd found a kindred spirit, and isn't it wonderful when someone you've never met, from an entirely different gender/generation/nationality finds you across the page like that?
One more thought, something hopeful, to end on:
My father gave me the gifts of being able to pay attention to my inner narration no matter how tedious the damn thing could be at times and the knowledge that creating something, be it music or a painting or a poem or a short story, was a way out of wherever you were and a way to find out what the hell happens next and not have it be the same old thing.
[..]
All the arts are a way to start a dialogue with yourself about what you've done, what you could have done differently, and whether or not you might try again.
February 5, 2011
Maybe we're not really hearing voices but certainly we all know what it's like to be out of synch with the world.
Vonnegut's book is written in that slightly out-of-focus way--as the title says--"like someone without mental illness only more so". His wry observations illuminate how anyone, diagnosed-and-labeled or not, struggles to make sense of and be sensible about being alive.
The necessity of the arts to survival ("the arts are not extra") and how they add fullness and magic and mystery to living is woven through both his family's history and his own attempts to be in the world.
"Art is lunging forward without certainty about where you are going or how to get there, being open to and dependent on what luck, the paint, the typo, the dissonance, give you. Without art, you're stuck with yourself as you are and life as you think life is."
The author's indictments of the medical industry (and that is what he thinks the practice of medicine has become) are chillingly on the mark: "The sick have been converted into financial investments whereby large amounts of money are transferred from one corporation to another. The business opportunities presented by sickness and the threat of sickness have cast into outer darkness the opportunity for medical practitioners to be of help and service."
Besides the very quotable writing, Mark Vonnegut gets a 5 from me for giving us all a break as imperfect humans, and seeing the positive possibilities contained inside the sometimes destructive voices and paths we hear and follow.
Vonnegut's book is written in that slightly out-of-focus way--as the title says--"like someone without mental illness only more so". His wry observations illuminate how anyone, diagnosed-and-labeled or not, struggles to make sense of and be sensible about being alive.
The necessity of the arts to survival ("the arts are not extra") and how they add fullness and magic and mystery to living is woven through both his family's history and his own attempts to be in the world.
"Art is lunging forward without certainty about where you are going or how to get there, being open to and dependent on what luck, the paint, the typo, the dissonance, give you. Without art, you're stuck with yourself as you are and life as you think life is."
The author's indictments of the medical industry (and that is what he thinks the practice of medicine has become) are chillingly on the mark: "The sick have been converted into financial investments whereby large amounts of money are transferred from one corporation to another. The business opportunities presented by sickness and the threat of sickness have cast into outer darkness the opportunity for medical practitioners to be of help and service."
Besides the very quotable writing, Mark Vonnegut gets a 5 from me for giving us all a break as imperfect humans, and seeing the positive possibilities contained inside the sometimes destructive voices and paths we hear and follow.
March 22, 2018
I was drawn to this memoir because I am in awe of those who can build flourishing lives when they have serious health problems. Suffering from both bipolar disorder and alcoholism, Mark Vonnegut managed to become an accomplished paediatrician, father, husband, and writer. Impressed!
And yet. He writes of his life as if he is looking at himself from afar, studying a specimen of a strange species, holding himself at arm’s length. You get the idea that he is mystified by his life path; he talks about a friend with similar problems who ended up in homeless and in poverty and he can’t figure out how he did not. I found that meditation on chance (luck?) fascinating.
I was surprised that the book reads more as a series of experiences than an autobiography, perhaps deliberately, to make the narrative more engaging. For example, I wasn’t sure why a charitable trip to Honduras was given so much weight in the context of his life. Meanwhile, his family remains a little vague and fuzzy, and his connections with them inchoate.
He likes to entertain us with aphoristic perspectives on life and art. For me, this made it seem a bit as if he were hiding behind his wit.
I found his observations about how the practice of medicine has evolved over the past 30 years in the USA instructive, since Canada operates a single payer system, which is not perfect, but, I think, better for most people most of the time.
And yet. He writes of his life as if he is looking at himself from afar, studying a specimen of a strange species, holding himself at arm’s length. You get the idea that he is mystified by his life path; he talks about a friend with similar problems who ended up in homeless and in poverty and he can’t figure out how he did not. I found that meditation on chance (luck?) fascinating.
I was surprised that the book reads more as a series of experiences than an autobiography, perhaps deliberately, to make the narrative more engaging. For example, I wasn’t sure why a charitable trip to Honduras was given so much weight in the context of his life. Meanwhile, his family remains a little vague and fuzzy, and his connections with them inchoate.
He likes to entertain us with aphoristic perspectives on life and art. For me, this made it seem a bit as if he were hiding behind his wit.
I found his observations about how the practice of medicine has evolved over the past 30 years in the USA instructive, since Canada operates a single payer system, which is not perfect, but, I think, better for most people most of the time.
October 26, 2017
This is a very interesting book. One would think that a book addressing mental illness would be very - well - depressing. On the contrary this is a very engaging, entertaining, sometimes tongue in cheek writing. Somewhat autobiographical, the author comes from an interesting family with its own history of mental illness (yes, he is the son of Kurt Vonnegut). Because he is also a pediatrician, there are also some real jewels in here about being a doctor. The writing style is popcorn style flitting from one thought to another. Sometimes it seems a bit disjointed but never enough to totally lose the reader. Here's my favorite quote from the book: "There are no people anywhere who don't have mental illness. It all depends on where you set the bar and how hard you look. What is a myth is that we are mostly mentally well most of the time." This book is full of little gems like this. Enjoy!
October 21, 2010
It's amazing how someone with a serious history of mental illness that Mark Vonnegut had could go on to doing what he does today as a doctor. This book has a lot of subject matter that was never covered in "Eden Express," and it's a book that picks up where "Eden Express" left off. His struggles with the medical industry, his alcoholism, his ex-wife, his children, his father, and his thoughts on looking back at his Harvard education questioning how he made it there. With a touch of his father's humor and his scholarly insights, this book is definitely a hard one to put down. While medicine is Mark Vonnegut's expertise, writing is obviously in his blood as it was in his father's.
November 5, 2010
Books like these help people understand what it's like to cope with mental illness. And as the author writes, "A world without prejudice, stigma, and discrimination against those who have or are thought to have mental illness would be a better world for everyone."
June 12, 2014
A great read that I burned through in just a couple of days. You get some interesting glimpses at his Dad, but don't read this if Kurt is your focus. What you mainly get is an interesting tale of hippies, the medical profession and mental health.
January 20, 2021
A looonnnggg time ago I read Eden Express, by Mark Vonnegut about surviving schizophrenia. We just saw a movie called Words on Bathroom Walls about a fictionalized high schooler who had psychotic episodes, and it made me wonder what ever happened to Mark Vonnegut. I did a little search and found this book written 10 years ago and knew I wanted to read it. Like a lot of people known to me, his schizophrenia diagnoses was misplaced and really he more-likely struggles with bipolar disorder. The book has a fair amount of stream-of-consciousness, especially when the writer is describing his life while he is perhaps not doing so well. He is very down to earth, (it's easy to like him), demystifies the Harvard experience, and as a pediatrician writes with a lot of feeling about the broken system of medical services, due to the insurance industry. ("Medical care has become a lot of crust and very little pie.") Vonnegut speaks of the impact of the family history, and the value of sobriety when he chose that. Sometimes his writing reminds me of the Woody Guthrie song "The Biggest Thing Man has ever Done" which usually makes me think Woody was bipolar. Well of course he was. Now will just put in some quotes.
He repeatedly refers to the value of art.
"None of us are entirely well, and none of us are irrecoverably sick. At my best I have islands of being sick. At my worst I had islands of being well. Except for a reluctance to give up on myself there isn't anything I can claim credit for that helped me recover from my breaks. Even that doesn't count. You either have or don't have a reluctance to give up on yourself. It helps a lot if others don't give up on you." (xii)
He repeatedly refers to the value of art.
"Art is lunging forward without certainty about where you are going or how to get there, being open to and dependent on what luck, the paint, the typo. the dissonance give you. Without art you're stuck with yourself as you are and life as you think life is." (p. 5) "If you don't have flights of ideas, why bother to think at all? I don't see how people without loose associations and flights of ideas get much done. The reason creativity and craziness go together is that if you're just plan crazy without being able to sing or dance or write good poems, no one is going to want to have babies with you..."
"Introverts almost never cause me trouble and are usually much better at what they do than extroverts. Extroverts are too busy slapping one another on the back, team building, and making fun of introverts to get much done. Extroverts are amazed and baffled by how much some introverts get done and assume that they, the extroverts, are somehow actually responsible." (p 28)
"If recovery from mental illness depended on the goodness, mercy, and rational behavior of others, we'd all be screwed. Peace of mind is inversely proportional to expectations.)
"It's possible within any given moment of any given day to choose between self and sickness. Rarely are there big heroic choices that will settle matters once and for all. The smallest positive step is probably the right one. Try not to argue. If you're right, you don't need to argue. If you're wrong, it won't help. If you're okay, things will be okay. If you're not okay, nothing else matters.
"A world without prejudice, stigma, and discrimination against those who have or who are thought to have mental illness would be a better world for everyone. What so-called normal people are doing when they define disease like manic depression or schizophrenia is reassuring themselves that they don't have a thought disorder or affective disorder, that their thoughts and feelings make perfect sense." (p. 166) (
July 25, 2022
None of us are entirely well, and none of us are irrecoverably sick. At my best I have islands of being sick. At my worst I had islands of being well. (Kindle 54)
I like psychological memoirs and learn more about people's experiences and coping strategies with each one. Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is unusual because Mark Vonnegut could not remain anonymous after writing, so faced considerable stigma from people who recognized him from his father's famous name and his own memoir describing his first three (of four breaks), which was published about the time that he went to med school.
Being bright and successful – a Harvard medical school grad, rated top pediatrician in Boston about the time of his fourth break – was probably a mixed blessing. If he had been functioning poorly all the time, people would have responded differently to him, perhaps understanding why attempting to jump through the window made sense, as it did to him.
I had only tried to jump through the window to prove to God I was worth saving. I tried to explain: As soon as I proved my faith, all the bad stuff was supposed to stop. The voices and agitation and need to do things to stop worse things from happening was supposed to go away. (p. 105)
Much of Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is about things other than his psychosis and recovery, as he is much more than his illness. The interactions among work, family, and his illnesses (bipolar disorder and substance abuse history) were as interesting or more so than his descriptions of the illness itself.
Vonnegut's father shows up occasionally, but not to his credit. If you want a flattering picture of Vonnegut the elder, look elsewhere.
I like psychological memoirs and learn more about people's experiences and coping strategies with each one. Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is unusual because Mark Vonnegut could not remain anonymous after writing, so faced considerable stigma from people who recognized him from his father's famous name and his own memoir describing his first three (of four breaks), which was published about the time that he went to med school.
Being bright and successful – a Harvard medical school grad, rated top pediatrician in Boston about the time of his fourth break – was probably a mixed blessing. If he had been functioning poorly all the time, people would have responded differently to him, perhaps understanding why attempting to jump through the window made sense, as it did to him.
I had only tried to jump through the window to prove to God I was worth saving. I tried to explain: As soon as I proved my faith, all the bad stuff was supposed to stop. The voices and agitation and need to do things to stop worse things from happening was supposed to go away. (p. 105)
Much of Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is about things other than his psychosis and recovery, as he is much more than his illness. The interactions among work, family, and his illnesses (bipolar disorder and substance abuse history) were as interesting or more so than his descriptions of the illness itself.
Vonnegut's father shows up occasionally, but not to his credit. If you want a flattering picture of Vonnegut the elder, look elsewhere.
November 5, 2025
I am glad that I chose to read this at a time when I could better understand and appreciate it. The writing confused me at first as he speaks in very short, abrupt sentences. At first they seemed nonsensical but then I got into his way of thinking and realized it is much like mine while in psychosis.
My major criticism lies in it being inintelligible at some points, mostly because of confusion around the timeline and jumping to new or old experiences without tying together howww... but in a way,, it did explain itself anyways.
My major criticism lies in it being inintelligible at some points, mostly because of confusion around the timeline and jumping to new or old experiences without tying together howww... but in a way,, it did explain itself anyways.
September 22, 2018
A very interesting read about Mark's childhood and struggles with mental illness and alcoholism. Very open and honest, and I learned a lot about his family that I didn't know, that was the most interesting part of this book. Of course having a famous father is one thing, but to take in 4 orphans when your aunt and uncle die 1 day apart! That is life changing and has a lot of impact on your life.
I had hoped the book would dive deeper into the feelings and thoughts about the various issues in his life. A little too much on the surface for my tastes.
I had hoped the book would dive deeper into the feelings and thoughts about the various issues in his life. A little too much on the surface for my tastes.
March 13, 2021
Mark Vonnegut has become one of my heroes, not least because of his courage and his brutal honesty.
September 13, 2022
I really wanted to love this book and see into the mind of Bi-polar. But just not to be so DNF
April 20, 2023
This book was amazing. I highlighted most of it. I laughed out loud and shed a tear or two. Unlike anything I’ve read about mental illness. Three cheers for Dr. Vonnegut!
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