Virtual Talk: “Hidden Valley Road” with Robert Kolker

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don’s work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. The established script for a family like this was: work hard, set goals, move up, be happy. The Galvins tried to play their parts. But there was another story behind the scenes: psychological breakdown, shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the family was among the first the experts at the National Institute of Mental Health studied. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia–from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother–to the search for genetic markers for the disease. The nature of the illness sparked profound disagreements throughout. And, the Galvins didn’t know that samples of their DNA have informed decades of genetic research that continues today–offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.

Tickets: Nonmembers $10/Members $5
For more information, click here.