Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

“The children who did not become mentally ill were, in many respects, as affected as their brothers.” 

Hidden Valley Road is concerned not only with schizophrenia’s nature and origins, but also with the impact it has on those witnessing it secondhand. This is in part because the condition can be distressing to observe: “[The symptoms are] deafening, overpowering for the subject and frightening for those who love them—impossible for anyone close to them to process intellectually” (xviii). What’s more, the demands of caring for a sick family member make it likely that other family members will feel neglected, particularly in a family like the Galvins, where the eldest siblings began experiencing symptoms while the youngest were still children. Finally, the sheer number of Galvin children who ended up developing schizophrenia compounded the trauma of the others, since each additional case seemed like further evidence that “an unstable element inside themselves” would ultimately “overtake them, too” (xx).

“There was quite likely another, deeper explanation as well—that the children filled a need in Mimi that perhaps even she had not anticipated. From an early age, Mimi had a way of glossing over the more painful disappointments in her life: the loss of her father; the forced exile from Houston; the husband who remained so distant from her. Even if she didn’t admit it, these losses hurt, and took their toll. Having so many children, however, offered Mimi a brand-new narrative” 

It’s never entirely clear whether Don or Mimi was the driving force behind the decision to continue having children; Mimi often said it was her husband who wanted a large family, but she also resisted medical advice when doctors warned her that the continued pregnancies were jeopardizing her health. Regardless, Kolker suggests that having such a large family was a way to sidestep the traumas of her past—not just those outlined here, but also the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather.