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SIREN'S DANCE: MY MARRIAGE TO A BORDERLINE: A CASE STUDY
Anthony Walker
Rodale, 2003, $19.95, 180 pp.
ISBN: 1579548318
In 1985 medical student Anthony Walker met beautiful twenty-two years old Michelle Sacks while making the rounds with the other students at the Miami Medical center. Michelle had been admitted the night before due to an overdose of an antidepressant Amitripyline that if abused can lead to death. Unable to comprehend how this lovely young woman could want to take her life, Anthony decides to make her his case study assignment. He interviews her once she regains consciousness and quickly falls in love with Michelle though everyone professionally and family cautioned him to stay away from her. Anthony isolates himself from friends and relatives as he joins the bleak world of Michelle in a depressing sometimes violent realm before finally freeing himself by leaving her.
At times quite interesting, especially for those coping with loved ones suffering from a borderline personality disorder, readers need to understand that this is not fiction and Dr. Walker is not a polished novelist. There is not magical boy meets girl, they fall in love, and their love cures her illness. Instead the account appears honest though that is a two edged sword as at times dialogue feels stilted and broken, but will fascinate the audience as the author gets inside his former wife's head and indirectly his own. The appendices provide powerful information on the illness, its diagnosis and ultimate treatment. Though choppy in style, SIREN'S DANCE: MY MARRIAGE TO A BORDERLINE: A CASE STUDY is an fascinating "case study" of a doctor as much as a patient sucked into her orb.
Harriet Klausner
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