Read what Gwill Newman has to say about a book that took her 25 years to write.  My Son’s Name Was Fred tells the story about her son’s ill-fated life and death.

In my book I relate the facts behind my letter to the Chicago Sun-Times. The book is not a gentle memoir.  It is the truth.  I explore, to the best of my ability, the genetics, family, home, environments, education, travel, adventures, traumas, including a devastating and mysterious fire, that all might have played a role in the development of my son’s illness.

I also write about the manifestations of Fred’s schizophrenia. About some of the doctors and hospitals and, perhaps in too much detail, I describe the mental institutions and Fred’s death.

The book also tells the love story about a man who was willing to become the surrogate father of my severely mentally ill son.  A man I was eventually able to marry and who – because of his position as a foundation executive and a former civil rights lawyer who headed a project concerning the Administration of Justice – was able to cause all kinds of positive programs for the mentally ill to occur, from housing to advocacy to research  programs that are still being replicated.

My book also speaks about women, particularly mothers, and the finally discredited psychiatric teaching that there was a person termed a schizophrenagenic mother who – it was said – actually caused schizophrenia.

And finally it is about all the positive things that can happen from brain research, knowledge that can affect everything from the practice of medicine to how we educate our children, how we regard our concepts of justice, good and evil, love and hate, the differences between the classic female and male brains and all variations in between. 

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When I read Gwill’s book about her son Fred’s disease, I was struck by the depth of what she revealed about herself.  When you suffer as much as she did, to find help, you reveal your soul.  Gwill did. It is a book that every family victimized by this disease must read.

- William E. Fay, Jr.
Brain Research Foundation

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