Extra Credit

Jared Hebert

Dr. Morahan-Martin

Abnormal Psychology

17 April 2014

Perfect Chaos: Book Report

Throughout her late teenage years into her early adulthood, Linea Johnson battled with a disorder that can often be overlooked as anxiety or depression, but was far worse than that. Linea had been living with bipolar disorder that had symptoms midway through her high school career. Her struggle with the disorder as well as her family’s struggle to help her is displayed throughout the memoir. By discussing what bipolar disorder is, as well as explaining how both Linea and Cinda, her mother, view different events, I will provide a better understanding of the novel and bipolar disorder in general.

To begin, it is important to explain the background of the novel and then go into a more detailed analysis of the chapters. The main structure of the chapters is a timeline of events and years since the development of Linea’s anxiety and depression into the devastating disorder of bipolar disorder. The chapters have both Cinda’s perspective and Linea’s journal-like entries dispersed within the chapter itself, which help to provide the reader with a dual perspective.

In chapter one, Cinda first discusses all of the members of her family, Jordan, her eldest daughter, Curt, her husband, and Linea. Cinda says that when Linea was growing up Jordan acted like her second mother. Jordan has been always strong and level headed and didn’t like to show strong emotions. The two sisters were always very close and it seemed as if they were inseparable. Linea was determined as a child, especially with music. Before kindergarten, Cinda taught Linea how to play the piano and she was instantly hooked. Cinda even says, “Linda is a musician. She plays any instrument she can get her hands on and showed a strong attraction to the piano as soon as she was tall enough to reach the keyboard” (Johnson 15). Throughout grade school and high school, Linea was always involved with music...