TELL ME I’M HERE: One Family’s Experience...

TELL ME I’M HERE: One Family’s Experience With Schizophrenia by Anne Deveson (Penguin: $10; 269 pp . , illustrated, paperback original). Australian documentary filmmaker Anne Deveson lived a nightmare that haunts every parent: She watched her son succumb to the madness that caused his death, and could do nothing to help him. Although schizophrenia is a commonly diagnosed mental illness, its causes remain unclear, and the prognosis for patients is uncertain at best. The Australian legal and social-service systems--like their post-Reagan American counterparts--make it difficult to hospitalize a person who appears lucid, even when he represents a danger to himself and others. Deveson offers a moving plea for a kinder, more rational treatment of schizophrenics and their families.