It Runs In The Family By Siddhartha Mukherjee Analysis

“It Runs in the Family” by Siddhartha Mukherjee chronicles the author’s research and own personal experiences with mental illness, particularly schizophrenia which runs in his family. While Siddhartha does not exhibit any signs of the disease himself at least none that he discloses to the reader, he has witnessed the debilitating effects of the disease through his uncles Rajesh and Jagu and also his cousin Moni. Perhaps such close familial contact with the disease stimulated the authors interest and subsequent further research into the topic.
The author briefly details the early life of those afflicted with the disease. He describes his uncle Rajesh as initially “the most promising” of his father's siblings - thorough, stubborn and disciplined however at just the age of twenty-two he unraveled. The once charismatic Rajesh was now …show more content…
He references the significant amount of research going into discovering the intricacies of mental illness and the advancement of medicine to produce a cure for these diseases. Most important amongst all of his discoveries is that researchers have speculated that schizophrenia may be linked to overactivity in the brain. It is believe that an “overabundance” of the C4A protein causes excessive pruning of the synapses which may in turn result in symptoms of schizophrenia. A discovery which could bring about this solution - would be to cease the increased pruning present in some individuals with medicine at will. This knowledge alone brings us closer to not only understanding the disease, but also curing it. However, with this new knowledge the author begins to question whether curing schizophrenia in the manner would cause individuals to lose their identity and what makes them unique and thinks of the unique traits that made his uncles stand