Cons: Bogs down in a few places due to amount of data.
The Bottom Line: Breakdown is not a quick or easy read, but it is an important story. The author does a nice job in presenting a balanced and thorough examination of many issues.
CyndiA's Full Review: Breakdown : Sex, Suicide and the Harvard Psychiatr...
Breakdown: Sex, Suicide, and the Harvard Psychiatrist by Eileen McNamara blew my mind. I enjoy non-fiction (especially stories about people) and read a lot of true crime and medical books. It’s unusual for me to go: “I’m just not believing this!” My reaction had nothing to do with the reporting and writing which is excellent. It was the story that kept me up late thinking about how crazy the world can get.
The story is very complex, but the Nutshell Version is that Paul Lozano, a Mexican-American student from Texas, sought help from Dr. Margaret Bean-Bayog for depression when he was having problems during his medical school program at Harvard. Bean-Bayog was a prominent psychoanalyst with a medical degree and appointments at Harvard, and she agreed to see the young man.
Sounds reasonable so far . . .
Paul was from a tight family, and he was far from home. He always pushed himself to excel. He had problems with mild depression earlier on and shifted from a military prep school to a school closer home where he did just fine.
Bean-Bayog had a history of alcoholism, but she had “worked that out.” She had made a name for herself, married, and was looking to adopt a Latino child. Some of her interests included child psychology and work with other cultures.
No red flags based on the general background . . .
Bean-Bayog decided that Paul needs to regress and figure out what happened in his childhood to make him depressed. She buys him a baby blanket, a Pound Puppy, and baby books for therapy and to keep at home for comfort. Remember that this is a Harvard medical student she is treating with baby items. She even makes tapes where she reads the baby books for Paul to play at home.
It is getting weird for sure . . .
First Bean-Bayog plays the mother role. Paul is in his 20s, and she is pushing 50. Not only does she take on the role, she pushes Paul to cut off from his family. She decides that Paul’s mother sexually abused him as a child and that his sister is bossing him. Bean-Bayog takes control of Paul and does not work with other doctors or the family in trying to help Paul.
Then it gets worse . . .
Bean-Bayog is sexually attracted to Paul. Now, she plays that off as some kind of projection thing and part of the therapy. It’s not really “her” she insists when the papers turn up. But, she has page after page of handwritten pornographic notes involving sexual activities with Paul. She swears that nothing sexual happened, and she is the only one alive to tell the story.
Whether Bean-Bayog slept with Paul or not, she crossed way over the line. Some of her own notes are included in the book, flash cards she made for Paul to read that put her in the mother role, and couple of photos in her office that Paul took. In one she is cuddling his Pound Puppy and the other one has Bean-Bayog grinning with her fingers sticking out from her ears. Even without Paul around to tell his side, the data is damning.
Since Bean-Bayog kept everything behind closed doors, it took a while before anyone said anything. A social worker finally expressed concern about the situation. Bean-Bayog dropped out on the “hard case” and Paul went back to Texas where he killed himself with 75 shots of cocaine.
Then what?
The suicide pumped the case up. The materials that Bean-Bayog wrote were found and hit the media. Wild stuff. Coverage was spotty and generally biased with most vocal speakers being behind the doctor. The wagons gathered round with a few exceptions. After all, it was Harvard. They could sort it out. No big problem.
It probably would have been a slap on the wrist for the doctor if the Lozano family had not pushed. The good name of a hard working family was important, so they did fight. The “bossy” sister, Pilar, who had been closest to Paul took on the fight and pushed all the way to the end.
Justice?
The family won on some level. Bean-Bayog turned in her medical license, which means she can’t practice as a doctor anywhere in the United States. Her only other option was to admit she might have done something wrong and take a short penalty period. She refused to do that and maintained that she was not wrong. On the down side, she doesn’t need a medical license to be a psychoanalyst, so she is still in business (or was when the book came out in 1994).
The book is solid but not an easy read.
The author presents a lot of material in the book. At times, it is overload. For example, when the notes of the flash cards are listed, there are really more than a reader would need or want. During the section talking about the cultural atmosphere in the Harvard area, which does have a bearing, the reading gets a little tedious with lots of names, schools of thought, and theory. It would be easy to skim some of the slower parts and still get the bulk of the story.
This is not a quick read for a vacation.
The author is a journalist, and she includes a lot of research in the area of medicine and cultures as well as just the basic story. The style is similar to newspaper but with a more literally focus. It is fact based with longer more flowing sentences. At the end, you’ll find chapter notes and also a bibliography.
Thumbs up from me!
Overall, I thought this was a great book. I liked the depth and the objective presentation of the materials. There were the few slow parts, but the value of the work overrode the tedious moments. I came away from the book thinking that we really need to look at how we treat people in this country and especially those with mental problems. There is no way that I buy that Bean-Bayog is innocent. She should not be allowed to coordinate any type of treatment for those needing help with mental problems. In fact, she is the one who needs to be seeing someone.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has a mentally ill family member, anyone interested in going into the field of medicine (and particularly psychiatry), and to true crime readers who like books with solid research.
*********************
At one point, I considered a career in the mental health field. After working a summer job at a group home, I decided that it wasn’t the right field for me. I’ve continued to be interested in mind disorders though, and I read a lot of books about mental illness. Here are my other book reviews of non-fiction with mental health issue themes. They’re in order as written over the years, but I included a general category after each one. Some of these books are excellent. A few are awful.
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