The Angel and the Dragon: A Father's Search for Answers to His Son's Mental Illness and Suicide

Jonathan Aurthur has written a masterpiece on Mental Illness. His in-depth understanding of Mental Illness comes from his experiencing it and living with it everyday of his life for five years with his beautiful son Charley. Jonathan takes the reader on a journey through this ordeal with such candor and wit, that the reader feels sadness when the book ends.Jonathan's unbelievable research of every aspect of Mental Illness, is so helpful to those of us that still don't understand and never will understand, how a person can go from A - Z, Z to A, and A to dead in such a short time! His handsome, poetic and intelligent son's five year struggle with "his affliction" is detailed and chronicled in this book by using excerpts from his own personal journal and his son's journal. We finally have insight into the mind of someone tortured by this disease. My 30-year-old son, William B. Jones, received his BS in Physics from Hobart College in NY. He played varsity hockey for Hobart College and graduated with a 3.5. He received his MS in Computer Engineering from Syracuse in October 1997 (3.87 GPA) and worked for almost two years in NY at a pharmaceutical company. A perfect son! In 1999 he became ill and returned home, never comprehending what was wrong with him. In February of 2000 he was taken by the police, in handcuffs, to Community North Hospital Psychiatric Ward, diagnosed Manic Depressive with Psychotic Features. He fought the illness for a year and a half, until he surrendered on July 25th, 2001. I found him in the garage, he had hung himself! Jonathan Aurthur's book, "The Angel and The Dragon," should be a text book that is taught in schools, studied and read by police, teachers, Doctors, Nurses and Professionals. Mental Illness is a deadly disease.

For anyone with a loved one or good friend who has suffered from mental illness, The Angel and the Dragon is a fascinating but difficult read. Jonathan Aurthur's tale of his son's mental illness and suicide is heart-breaking. His research into the mental health profession/industry is, at once, a revelation and revulsion. The reader cannot escape Aurthur's pain and frustation as he attempts to help guide his son through difficult psychotic episodes. That frustation becomes compounded as Aurthur researches doctors and the drug industries in an attempt to figure out what is wrong with his son and how to abate it if not cure it.This book is not an easy one to read but it leaves you with a feeling of gratitude that you did.