I am indebted to my editors at Inner Traditions: Jon Graham, Jennifer Marx—whose astute and thoughtful reading of the book made it considerably less obscure—and Anne Dillon. I want to thank the following people for their support as friends or help with the book, or both: Hardina Dahl, Dr. Stuart Sovatsky, Peter Lehmann, Professor Daniel Burston, Claude M., Dr. John Breeding, Dr. David Cohen, Dr. Ray Russ, Ingrid Vien, Dr. Richard Gosden, Dr. Linda Morrison, my sister Pat and her husband Sal, Pasquale Galante, Elizabeth Smith, Antonia Dunbar, Harold Channer, Bill Kaufman, Steve Apodaca, Judith Greenberg, Tom Oakley, Danielle Deschamps, Carol Goss, Luisa Castaganara, Ruth Campbell, Laura Levine, Julian O’Neill, Ady Linda, George Fish, J. Pavia, Steve Pearlman, Serine Forino, Chris Launois, Melissa Lande, Lauren Tenney, Mitch Cohen, Joe Dubovy, Van Howell, Jeff Levy, Francesca Spiegel, Dr. Mychael Gleason, and others to whom I am no less indebted but are too numerous to mention.
There were several very articulate people I interviewed whom I could not include in the book either because they had not had the requisite experience (e.g., Zool had not had a degrading experience in a psychiatric ward and had far more knowledge about the brutal foreign policies of our government than he did about the mental health system) or because I had too much material to include in one book. Dianne Dragon eloquently recounted a powerful story about her very extraordinary experiences in the military (in training)—they were emotionally overwhelming—but since many are exposed to the same stresses it’s surprising more soldiers are not driven crazy by them. The implications of her story would have required a discussion of many more pages.