Robert Kolker

Donald told the doctor that for years he had not been himself at all, but rather a mirror of what other people wanted him to be.

But that concession only raised a more puzzling question. “In the strictest sense, it is not schizophrenia that is inherited,” he said. “It is clear that not everybody who harbors the genes develops schizophrenia.” Schizophrenia was definitely genetic, but not always passed down. And so they all were still left wondering: How could this be?
“The genes that are implicated,” Rosenthal said, “produce an effect whose nature we have not yet been able to fathom.”

At the same time that he insisted on having a house filled with children, he also treasured a life of the mind, of solitude and order. And yet no matter how tranquil and orderly she made their home, he always found a reason to stay away.