PART TWO

Mark Vonnegut

We started with a clip from Kurt Vonnegut Junior speaking on The Current, the year before he passed away. Vonnegut suffered famously from depression or what he liked to call "bad chemicals."

And he's not the only one in his family. In the early 1970s, Kurt's eldest son, Mark, came to British Columbia as an idealistic young hippie to form a commune with his friends. It was there, at the age of 23, that he had his first psychotic break.

Since then, he has experienced three more breaks ... undergone two different psychiatric diagnoses ... graduated from Harvard Medical School ... become a respected pediatrician ... and written two memoirs about his struggle with mental illness. The most recent is Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness, Only More So. Doctor Mark Vonnegut was in Boston.

Related Links:

• Escaping the straitjacket - A Harvard-trained M.D. talks about going 'crazy' and the struggle to stay sane by Jonathon Gatehouse - Macleans
• Mark Vonnegut's Sane Response to Psychosis by Susan Inman - The Tyee
• Vonnegut Speaks On Mental Illness by Maria S. Pedroza - The Harvard Crimson
• 'Only More So': Mark Vonnegut's Battle With Bipolar by Genevieve Wanucha - NPR