They compare the bipolar symptoms of grandiosity and megalomania, as well as a list of other clinical signs displayed by these men to the modern day mass murderers Jeffrey Dahmer, Jim Jones, and Colin Fergusen who displayed similar symptoms. Far-fetched, perhaps, but there is a private destruction that takes place in thousand of bipolar homes, and the severity of this destruction is to a large degree determined by how this disease and its effects are managed. Their observations were not limited to their patients, but included the children, spouses, as well as the family as a unit. Twenty-two children between the ages of 5 and 17 were analyzed through a correlation of tests designed to measure childhood psychopathology. Dynamics in the bipolar family are strongly handicapped by fear.
Children fear their parent's illness yet at the same time, they fear their parent's unavailability.
It is actually a relief for many children when their parent is depressed. Mother was so completely different when she was well. She listened, she was kind, she was generous, she was fun to be with, she never criticized Dad, and she was always at home. Inconsistency is not only a tendency of the afflicted parent. The well parent is also inconsistent in their parenting abilities.