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This is an aptly titled, very moving little book written in journalistic style on a topic which, though vital to certain patients, is not often mentioned in the analytic literature. The author, a psychotherapist, tells her own story of growing up in the shadow of her disturbed brother Steven. Psychologically oriented vignettes are included from sixty other “normal” individuals who have survived life with a physically or emotionally damaged sibling. The author emphasizes that “normal siblings are inundated daily with behavior that is … noxious, frightening, incomprehensible and wretchedly sad. Pity and outrage intermingle, and anger implodes when the perpetrator is also the victim” (p. 73). She names this sibling experience the “Caliban syndrome,” but I think it should really be called the “Miranda syndrome,” after the victim rather than after the repugnant slave of Shakespeare's Tempest.
The book may be helpful in an experience-near way to therapists working with such patients, who, because they are often consciously oblivious of the internal impact their sibling has had on them, may