She was a wonderful child -- charming, gifted, full of energy -- and she seemed to have a wonderful life ahead of her. Then the incomprehensible happened. At age 13, Rickie was diagnosed schizophrenic, removed from her caring family, and condemned to long, heartbreaking years in mental institutions.

This is the spellbinding story of Rickie's agonizing odyssey through illness and recovery, told by her father, internationally renowned psychiatrist Frederic Flach, and enriched with Rickie's own recollections. Indeed, part of the tragedy for Rickie and her family was the many years lost because the medical community of which her father is a distinguished member was unable to bring her back to health.

For anyone whose family has ever been touched by crisis, RICKIE is an unforgettably moving and powerfully uplifting book.

"A touching story." -- The New York Times Book Review