Title: Climbing the rock within
Description: In 1955 a San Francisco upper-middle-class couple welcomes their fourth child, Rosetta. The father provides everything materially good for his children, education, opportunity, but in denial of his need for psychiatric help, he allows no tears; the children imitate his narcissistic temperament and rival one another. A serious fever leaves Rosetta to endure mild but frequent epileptic seizures, inexplicable fears, and heavy medication. As an adolescent her brother one time mistreats her; confused, she tells no one, and asks to go to a Catholic boarding school; she makes new friends, and plots to stop her pills. After college Rosetta denounces society, and goes to live in Hawaii where she cuts her meds completely. Determined to understand her family, her life, she returns home and asks her father for a walk/talk on the beach; he quietly refuses, she fists the stars for help, has a Nervous Breakdown and meets a doctor who does more than save her life.
Subjects: Fiction, Narcissists, Epilepsy, Automobile travel, Families
Places: San Francisco (Calif.), Hawaii