Living on the streets with untreated severe mental illness that developed at the age of fifty-three, Joseph was all but forgotten by the world. His daughter, Amanda, had searched for years and still hoped to find him--she'd even registered her father in the National Database of Missing Persons. Her sister, brother, and stepmother had all given up or moved on. Ten years have passed when a call from the Missing Persons division alerts Amanda that her dad is alive, though his location is unknown. Is he back in Chicago or in one of the thirty countries he’d roamed as a self-proclaimed Prophet of God? Amanda's mission is clear: find him. Her motivation: unconditional love. She navigates a maze of medical bureaucracy and a tangle of relationships to discover that what she's been searching for is not all that she finds. Finding Dad, Paranoid Schizophrenia: An End to the Search is the highly-anticipated sequel to Losing Dad, Paranoid Schizophrenia: A Family's Search for Hope. Book club discussion questions included.
“… compelling memoir especially highly recommended for readers facing their own impossible family journeys … replete with insights and progressive discoveries… will especially resonate with readers struggling with their own family member’s mental condition… Knowing her father’s fate is only half the battle.”
Amanda LaPera’s original Finding Dad... recounted the family’s experience of a father’s mental illness. This sequel opens with LaPera’s wondering if her father’s body has finally been located. Then comes a surprising revelation that changes the course of her assumptions and experience.
Knowing her father’s fate is only half the battle. Enough tantalizing detail is offered to confirm matters without giving her information which would give her closure.
Finding Dad, Paranoid Schizophrenia: An End to the Search is about putting the pieces together to achieve this finality. It surveys the legal and investigative efforts LaPera engaged in, the snafus and barriers of a system designed to protect privacy at the cost of putting up barriers to a family’s inquiry, and the lasting impact of this search and discovery mission.
As COVID raises additional fears and impacts, LaPera is forced to consider reality from different angles. These illustrate how perception in the mentally ill differs heavily from that of those living outside of, but adjacent to, one with a mental condition.
From issues of legal and psychological control to false narratives that emerge from COVID and interpersonal conflicts and clashes, LaPera’s story is replete with insights and progressive discoveries. These will especially resonate with readers struggling with their own family member’s mental condition.
The result fills in many gaps in the first book, moving the saga into arenas of new developments that further send LaPera into unfamiliar territory. How she narrates this journey, these contrasting perceptions and experiences, and the specter of mental health amidst the backdrop of COVID’s threat makes for a compelling memoir especially highly recommended for readers facing their own impossible family journeys.
Libraries that choose Finding Dad, Paranoid Schizophrenia: An End to the Search will find it easy to recommend to psychology and book club reading groups interested in schizophrenia, from altered perception and family interactions to the disparate incarnations of suffering and connection which rise from mental illness.
“… deeply personal memoir… LaPera brings to life the raw emotions and challenges of searching for a loved one lost to mental illness with extraordinary grace and honesty…. an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the impact of severe mental illness on families and the power of persistent love, and I would certainly recommend it.”
