The dedications at the front of Herb Gravitz's book, Mental Illness and the Family: To the families of those under the influence of serious mental illness, addiction, and other traumas. because injury begets injury, this triple threat often strikes the same family. May this book acknowledge your plight, may it lighten your burden, and may it provide the meaning, knowledge, and skills that will lead you to triumph over life's most painful adversities. Dr. Gravitz succeeds in all of the above and, in so doing, knocks on the doors of convention challenging a basic assumption regarding the care of persons with mental illness... an assumption that prohibits the use of "Triumph" and mental illness in the same conversation. The book is soundly rooted in three decades of professional experience and gracefully supported by ancient texts and contemporary sages, classical mythology, neuroscience and the latest in quantum physics. In addition to outlining clear stages and strategies for families, Gravitz compassionately describes the family "under the influence" of mental illness as holding both the overlooked suffering and an essential key to unlock the doors to a realistic way of responding to one of life's great adversities. Gravitz states, "severe mental illness does not end life, it redirects it." And being redirected by mental illness, families are repeatedly thrown into chaos. In the uncharted territory, Dr. Gravitz is uniquely qualified to offer himself as guide. His resume in the field of mental health/mental illness is pages long and vast enough for several lifetimes. But more importantly is his ability to be with people, to listen and translate the complex and confusing into the understandable and doable.