Panelists discuss experiences with mental health issues
Linda SongLove and encouragement play critical roles in facilitating family relationships between parents and children with physical, mental and social disabilities, Andrew Solomon said in a lecture on Tuesday.Solomon is the founder of the Solomon Research Fellowships in LGBT studies at Yale and a professor of Clinical Studies at Columbia University.Solomon, who was awarded the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, discussed his latest work, "Far From the Tree: Parents, Children & the Search for Identity," recounting his work with families over the course of 11 years in regard to schizophrenia, deafness, autism and sexual identity.Solomon shared many narratives, one of which involved an individual named Clinton Brown, born with diastrophic dysplasia or “dwarfism." Brown’s parents were told by doctors that he likely would not survive and he was given a dire prognosis.However, his family took him home, and since then he has undergone 30 major surgeries and became the first person in his family to go to college.“The language we use around these experiences can determine in many ways the outcome," Solomon said.Solomon also discussed his own journey in coming out as an LGBT person.“When I was perhaps six years old, I went with my mother and brother to a shoe store," Solomon said.
