The Other Side of Sanity

Inspired by a true story, pushed to the brink of murder and suicide by the therapists he trusted with his secrets, “The Other Side of Sanity” is Daniel Shepley’s harrowing account of James Snyder’s – Shepley’s fictionalized version of himself in the novel – rapid descent into, and gradual emergence from, psychosis and madness. It is a disturbing vision of manipulation and betrayal by the people he entrusted to help him recover. Snyder finds himself in a mental health system under the care of a woman who begins his treatment indifferent to his problems and then more than indifferent, in fact, becomes cruelly manipulative and destructive. The deep and dangerously psychotic state James enters as a result of his incompetent treatment includes ideas of, and plans for, murder and suicide. It is a story all too tragically common in America today: a disturbed young man, filled with an inexplicable rage, who turns that rage outward and murders. Snyder at first finds little hope and little help until he discovers his guide through the dark woods of mental illness, Dr. Solomon Janowitz. It is with Janowitz’s patience and kindness that James emerges and assumes the healthy and productive life of a man not “cured,” but healing. It is a remarkable and courageous tale of darkness and light, despair and recovery. In its telling, Shepley has created in Snyder and Janowitz characters of a touching and profoundly moving humanity.