At the tender age of eight, F. D. Raphael experiences her first cluster headaches-harbingers of the brain anguish that will come to dominate both her life and those of her loved ones, sending her to places most fear to tread-into the intractable realm of mental health.
She watches her brother suffer from undiagnosed Asperger's and later, as an executive in the inner circle of the music industry, looks on as addictions decimate the lives of the rock stars around her.
With one son battling attention deficit disorder and Tourette's Syndrome, the other plagued with obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, Raphael must find help to treat these afflictions of the brain.
She relies on what she knows best and begins more than a decade long search for a new group of rock stars. This time, she endeavors to learn everything she can from the brightest masters of brain science research.
Embedded with the rhythm of humanity, The Rock Stars of Neuroscience takes us from pain to despair and back again, opening up both the brain, and perhaps, more importantly, the human heart. A fascinating and inspiring read of both the mainstream and the fringes of neuroscientific knowledge.
-Author, Michael Schofield.
About the Author: F. D. Raphael built a career in the music industry, working for the David Geffen Company, Aerosmith, Rhino Entertainment, and Bertelsmann Music Group in a wide range of creative and executive roles. She executive produced the critically acclaimed theatrical release DeRailroaded: The Wild Man Fischer Story, a film about Fischer's colorful music career and the paranoia induced by his manic-depressive schizophrenia.
Raphael graduated from Rutgers University with a BA with honors in English and mass communication. She interned for legendary publisher William Phillips of The Partisan Review and attended the Writer's Program at Bennington College before becoming a staff writer for The Middlesex Daily News in Massachusetts.
In 2011, Raphael received the prestigious California State Parent Teacher Association Honorary Service Award. She works with UCLA's Depression Grand Challenge Advocacy Team and lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and their dogs, Foster and Posse 2. They have two grown sons.
