“A Tiny White Light” by Linda Bass ’71, a candid memoir about the author’s own psychotic episode and its origins in guilt, lost purpose, conflict between mothering and career and the ambiguity in her relationship with her therapist, is to be published in January 2026.

From the press release:

Just after nineteen-year-old Linda’s family moves from a small Wisconsin town to the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of Los Angeles in 1967, her parents divorce, and she and her younger brother, Brian, must fend for themselves. Linda finds stability in academic pursuits and part-time work, but Brian quickly spirals—behaving erratically, landing in psychiatric hospitals and jails, and, finally, committing an irrevocable act. Plagued with guilt, Linda loses her sense of purpose, abandons a promising career in psychology, and finds herself in a life she never envisioned—poor, alcoholic, and an accidental parent in an unhappy marriage.

At her husband’s urging, Linda starts seeing a psychologist, Sam, who quickly becomes a touchstone for what she has lost: her sense of self. Feeling truly seen, she falls in love with Sam and believes he might return her feelings, but he gives mixed messages. The ambiguity, mingled with other overwhelming stresses, triggers her descent into a psychotic episode — one that echoes her dreams, Brian’s experience, and Sam’s own phobia.

Standing at the brink of self-destruction, Linda realizes she is at a turning point: She can continue stumbling down her brother’s path—or she can find her way back to herself and create the life she longs to live.

Bass majored in psychology and earned a master’s degree in psychology from UC Berkeley. She worked in the workforce development field for thirty years, most recently as the executive director of a regional workforce board in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now retired, she devotes her time to writing, painting, solving puzzles, reading, singing (to herself), enjoying friends and family, and feeling grateful for the life she has now. She currently lives in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and is working on a second book.