what are the mental illnesses Janette's mother and father have?

Rex Walls is a hopeless alcoholic. He cannot keep a job. He claims he has grand plans but really just drinks.

Jeannette’s mother, Rose Mary Walls claims she is an artist and a sort of cultural rebel. She really is just rebelling against her own mother's very sensible and practical approach to life. It is not really mentioned what exact mental illness she has but she definitely has issues. She is selfish, frequently hording chocolate while the children starve. She has little empathy for her children. When questioned about getting a job she says, “I’m an artist, why do I have to work? Your father doesn’t do anything.” Because of her great difficulty with social contact, even with her kids, I thought that she might have a mild form of Asperger's syndrome but that is just a guess.

I strongly suspect that the mother, Rose Mary, was bipolar. She is definitely NOT Asperger's. (I am a teacher and teach many kids with Asperger's.) Rose Mary reminds me of my own mother growing up, who would vascillate between being kind and being completely disengaged from my upbringing --despite being in the same house together. Rose Mary exhibits bouts of depression, and her craving of sugar/chocolate is indicative of a chemical imbalance in the brain --most likely a seratonin or dompanine deficiency.

Both parents are Narcistic,while reading the book and the 7 deadly sins of Narcissim, you could be able to relate most actually all the the sins to them,they fit all the category.they just give a clear description to it.Here are the 7 deadly sins:

1) Shamelessness:Narcissist have no shame ghoulish,inability to process it in a healthy way

2) Magical Thinking:They see themselves as perfect,they use distortion and illusion known as magical thinking

3)arrogance:A narcissist who is feeling deflated may reinflate by diminishing, debasing, or degrading somebody else

4)envy:A narcissist may secure a sense of superiority in the face of another person's ability by using contempt to minimize the other person

5)Entitlement:they excpect favourable treatment failure to do so the person is considered diffucult or akward.

6)exploitation:can take many forms but always involves the exploitation of others without regard for their feelings or interests. Often the other is in a subservient position where resistance would be difficult or even impossible. Sometimes the subservience is not so much real as assumed

7)Bad Boundries:narcissists do not recognize that they have boundaries and that others are separate and are not extensions of themselves. Others either exist to meet their needs or may as well not exist at all

I am just reading the book now and started to think Narcissim about halfway through. Definitely agree with the theory that at least the Mother is so. Narcissism is a personality disorder as opposed to a severe mental illness. But it can be very disabling and usually persons with personality disorders can function under the best of conditions but tend to deteriorate with age. Harder to tell with Rex as his alcoholism would mask his true personality and any mental disorders he might have. Certainly they both also exhibit signs of paranoia. Maybe I'll understand more as I progress with the book.

I'd say Rex suffered from ptsd, not only from sexual, violent, and psychological abuse as a child, but from losing his infant daughter, Mary Charlene. Substance abuse is I believe classified as a mental disorder.

wow I must say I am listening/reading this book and I suspect to far narcissism with both parents, PTSD with father and a sort of Bipolar on Mother side...I still can't pin point of what I keep reading on Autism Spectrum on the mother but whoa brings flashbacks on my mother side of the family..raised by my grandmother and aunt has exhibit narcissism disorder or NPD

Rex is a raging alcoholic.

Rose Mary is more complicated. She reminds me of my own mother in some ways. She may be bipolar or she may have anti-social personality disorder (a sociopath).

My profession is not in mental health or any sort of psychology, but I have experience with mental illness. Rex Walls is most definetly a sociopath, and based purely on her high energy and depressive behaviors, I would say Jeannette's mother is hyper-manic and bipolar. I'll begin with sociopathism. While the definition of a sociopath when typed simply into Google is a lack of self conscious, there's so much more to the disease. Sociopaths are a type of psychopath, however they tend to be lying, manipulative, and act overly friendly when you meet them. Sociopaths are the last people you would suspect to be bad if yiu didn't know them well, but as time goes on they learn to use, trick, and cheat people into getting what they want. They present themselves with a sort of charm that is inescapable, and once they pull people in, they use human emotion as a form of manipulation. Sociopaths lack understanding of emotion, yet they know how to act as though they feel just as much, if not more so, then anyone else. Sociopaths are hard to spot, because they don't reveal their true wants and intentions until they're sure the victim cares deeply for them. They feed off of validation and constant reassurance that they're "the best", and often have narssasistic tendencies. Once again, this is based purely on past experience, so if you want to do further research on sociopaths to better your understanding that would definitely tell you more about what kind of people they really are.

Hope this helped!