Stranger In The Family:
A Guide to Living With The Emotionally Disturbed
Claire Burch
Psychology / Self Help / $19.95 paper (ISBN 0-916147-25-8) / $34.95 hardback
(ISBN 0-916147-70-3) / 214 pages / / 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"
Originally published in 1972 by Bobbs Merrill, the classic Stranger In the Family: A Guide to Living with the Emotionally Disturbed remains an innovative work on a controversial subject. Endorsed by the American Psychiatric Association with an introduction by Dr. Walter Barton, former Medical Director of the Association. Also including a new, updated overview by Dr. Lester Gelb.
"Claire Burch has done the 'impossible'. She has explicated the diverse, controversial, multi-disciplinary, multifaceted and often confused field of mental disorder in a clear, amazingly complete, readable and yet well documented way. All of this for a humanistic purpose -- to show us how in this society where so many suffer from conflict and confusion sufficient to require professional help, the non -professional friends and family members can also be of help, and to demonstrate that these friends and family members, while they may be a part of the problem, may also be part of the solution."
Lester Gelb, M.D.
Former Associate Director & Clinical Director
Maimonides Community Mental Health Center
"The book reflects enormous care and effort in surveying the vast field of psychiatry and related disciplines. Ms. Burch has done a magnificent job in leading the reader through the maze of ambiguities, uncertainties and contradictions that surround the solid data of this field. Any relative of a patient would benefit from reading this thoughtful and rewarding book. I recommend it highly."
Dana Farnsworth, M.D., Director, Harvard Health Services
"If properly presented to the millions of people suffering from emotional disturbance, this book could have a major impact in alleviating much of the distress by patients and their families. In terms of the professional audience, the book will have benefit in focusing the attention of psychiatrists and others to developing better strategies for assisting patients with their daily living and shifting attention away from the commonly used conventional psychotherapeutic approaches which prove frustrating and unrewarding and generate notions that the patient is incurable rather than the more optimistic notion that the patient has a problem for which we have not yet developed or so far determined an operational solution. Experience throughout the world has certainly demonstrated that hallucinations do not necessarily impair an individual's ability to function in the society. It is largely the attitude towards such defense mechanisms which determine whether the patient will be allowed to function. Stranger In The Family could be a landmark book comparable to Clifford Beer's The Mind That Found Itself, and I am happy to endorse it."
Ari Kiev, M.D., Program Head, Cornell Program in Social Psychiatry
"Stranger in the Family is a radical book Claire Burch had to write since nothing like it existed. It is more than an expert study of dealing, at the family level, with people who are presenting symptoms of what has been labeled emotional disturbance. She makes it clear that emotional departures from the cultural norm can be considered as sometimes healthy expressions of feeling and need not be thought of as necessarily tragic, that the person having difficulty functioning in society is still to be thought of as a valuable member of society and that the meaning underneath his symptoms should be interpreted with understanding and warmth. In short she validates expressions of so called "craziness" and points out how they can be used in a constructive way."
Alice B. Morris, Harper's Bazaar Literary Editor for 17 years
"In this much needed volume Claire Burch has provided an important service for those who have had to cope in everyday life with the "different", the troubled, the sometimes troublesome individuals both in and out of the home. She has done for families of the emotionally disturbed what Benjamin Spock did for those responsible for Baby and Child Care.
Clearly and simply written, this sound book takes the reader through the foundations of both mental health and illness, helps with the understanding of how their manifestations came about, and directs attention to what is available to deal with individuals in difficulty. At the same time there are do's and don'ts that provide constructive directions for handling the problems involved.
The author covers not only the wide spectrum of age related problems beginning with children, but also covers the newer types of treatment and community programs.
This book's purpose is to relieve the helplessness which so often is the understandable response of the family member when faced with the distress and need for action in the face of emotional disturbance in the home."
Reginald Lourie, Director, Psychiatry
Children's Hospital, District of Columbia
"Stranger In the Family by Claire Burch is well written, clear, direct and carefully thought out. It could only have been written by one who has been through the agony and anguishes, the diffuse, confusing, sometimes seemingly overwhelming problems which emotional disturbance brings to the family. She has come through with a keen desire to help -- for some of the suffering can be alleviated if the family knows what can be realistically done. In this sense the book is a true guide to living with oneself as well as with the patient."
Soll Berl, M.D., Dept. of Psychiatry, Psychiatric Institute, N.Y.
"I have read Stranger In The Family and it speaks in a poetic sense about the nature of growing, of the mind, and about family interrelationships. It was moving and illuminating."
Joseph Chaiken, Director of Open Theater, N.Y.
"Claire Burch is an artist in every sense of the word. It's interesting to find her artistry applied to an area normally reserved for clinicians. But like everything she does, her thoughtfulness of the approach, the intelligence of her attitudes, the empathy she applies, all shine through. The book will prove an invaluable guide to anyone facing the emotionally disturbed."
Jack Kuney, Producer, Director WNET 13
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