Claudia M. Jones Ph. D.

There Aren't Any Kitchens in Heaven Claudia M. Jones Ph. D.

There Aren't Any Kitchens in Heaven is a compelling and compassionate account of mental illness and its devastating effects on not only the afflicted individual but also on the family who loves him. Author Claudia M. Jones's older brother, Paul, was diagnosed in his early twenties with paranoid schizophrenia. Dr. Jones's story chronicles the onset and escalation of her brother's schizophrenia and how her family coped with the many and varied challenges of living with his illness. The author's personal recollections are supplemented by extracts from her mother's journal, kept during the most turbulent years of Paul's illness, and actual letters and reports written by many of the psychiatrists, psychologists, and other professionals who attended Paul. There Aren't Any Kitchens in Heaven is unique in the literature of mental illness, in that it lays no blame on the mental health or legal systems for their inability to help Paul, focusing instead on the reality of Paul's day-to-day life and his mother and sister's unwavering acceptance of him. It is a harrowing yet ultimately uplifting story of loving endurance and enduring love.