Politics, Death and Addiction

Politics, Death & Addiction is a story of a mother's reaction to her daughter's suicide, played out in the public arena of Victorian politics.

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Politics, Death and Addiction tells how an active Member of Parliament, psychologist and mother became addicted to alcohol and 'pokies', while rearing her granddaughter and working as a Member of Parliament, following her daughter's suicide. Grounded in the reality of Labor Party politics and public policy making, it exposes the impact on Carolyn Hirsh's public life of unacknowledged grief and undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. The book offers insight for others suffering from similar challenges, by providing a professional self-analysis. Through blending current dilemmas with childhood flashbacks, the reader gets a real sense of why Hirsh reacted as she did to the humiliation of being told to resign from the Labor Party over her misdemeanours. Politics, Death and Addiction is much more than a political who, what and when: Hirsh shines an unforgiving light on people and processes during her time in the media spotlight and beyond. The manuscript was shortlisted for the Finch Memoir Prize, 2013.