Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs--whole book

Running with Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs, was a very interesting book to read. The story is based on the author's childhood experiences. Growing up with a psycotic mother and staying with a crazy family is not the normal childhood experience. When Augusten's parents get divorced, his mother fears for their safety (from Augusten's father) and starts seeing a psycologist, Dr. Finch. She claims that the doctor is a genius and is the only person in the world to protect her and Augusten. A few years later, Dr. Finch adopts Augusten, and Augusten lives with the Finch family. The Finches are not the average family--they are heavily influenced by Dr. Finch's ideas, some of which are slightly eccentric. For example, Dr. Finch believed that each person had the right to chose their own parents, so he allowed his daughter Natalie to live with a 41 year old man named Terrence (her legal guardian), even though he knew they were lovers. However, while reading this book, I was unsure of how much Dr. Finch actually helped Augusten's mother and his other patients. After every one of his mother's psycotic breakdowns, Augusten noticed that she was not the same as she ever was. Some of the things that Dr. Finch said and did could be viewed as unprofessional or even unethical. At the end of the novel, Augusten's mother claimed that Dr. Finch raped her, and that she was heavily influenced by him, almost as if under a spell. While I found Dr. Finch interesting, this did not surprise me so much. He had a rather shaky character and had done some weird things in the past. Overall though, I found that certain parts of this book were very disturbing, and others were sad, comical, or just strange.