Ordinary People: Dysfunctional Family Thousands of people around the world suffer the consequences of not being able to forgive, in some cases it destroys their life. Ordinary People by Judith Guest, is the story of a dysfunctional family who relate to one another in a very odd way. The book opens with seventeen year old Conrad, son of upper middle-class Beth and Calvin Jarret, home after eight months in a psychiatric hospital, there because he attempted suicide by slashing his wrists. Canard’s mother, is very self-possessed. She appears to have a highly developed super-ego making Conrad feel like she despises him. She does all the rig