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Guests | October 20, 2009

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It was in a letter of 1897, about his cousin James Ross Clemens, that Mark Twain famously noted that "the report of my death was an exaggeration." He... Continue »
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1 Burnside Psychology- Schizophrenia and Psychotic Disorders

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The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

by Elyn R Saks

The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness Cover

ISBN13: 9781401309442
ISBN10: 1401309445
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Elyn R. Saks is an esteemed professor, lawyer, and psychiatrist and is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Law School, yet she has suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life, and still has ongoing major episodes of the illness. The Center Cannot Hold is the eloquent, m oving story of Elyn's life, from the first time that she heard voices speaking to her as a young teenager, to attempted suicides in college, through learning to live on her own as an adult in an often terrifying world. Saks discusses frankly the paranoia, the inability to tell imaginary fears from real ones, the voices in her head telling her to kill herself (and to harm others); as well the incredibly difficult obstacles she overcame to become a highly respected professional. This beautifully written memoir is destined to become a classic in its genre. The title is a line from The Second Coming, a poem by William Butler Yeats, which is alluded to in the book.

Synopsis:

Saks managed to achieve both professional and personal success in spite of being diagnosed as schizophrenic and given a "grave" prognosis. In this memoir, she frankly and movingly discusses the disease, and the treatments that helped her to cope and thrive.
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Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
crowyhead, September 8, 2009 (view all comments by crowyhead)
I found this memoir to be truly impressive. There are many memoirs that detail the experience of depression and bipolar disorder. There are memoirs on alcoholism, eating disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But there are very few that give the reader insight into what it is like to be schizophrenic.

Elyn Saks is an accomplished woman: she graduated from Oxford and Yale, and is a tenured law professor. She has also struggled with schizophrenia since her late teens, and relates her experiences in such a way that the reader will never think of schizophrenia in the same way again.

People tend to think of schizophrenics and dangerous, incoherent, low-functioning, "just plain crazy." Saks has been all of those things (although mainly she was a danger to herself), but only a small percentage of the time. Most of the time, she is at least as sane as the people around her, sometimes moreso.

The prose here is mainly pretty workmanlike, but Saks does a good job of expressing what it feels like to be having psychotic thoughts and feelings, as well as the experience of being hospitalized and living with the stigma of mental illness. She is a big proponent of psychoanalysis, which is a form of talk therapy that I'm personally leery of, but she does make a good case for the effectiveness of talk therapy in conjunction with medication for those with thought disorders as well as mood disorders (for a very long time, it was thought that talk therapy was basically useless for those who have thought disorders like schizophrenia). Recommended.
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Annie Wright, March 30, 2009 (view all comments by Annie Wright)
I work in the court system, and see a good number of involuntary commitment cases, most of which feature individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. So many of these cases come through, and it is easy to become jaded and indifferent toward people living with this illness. Thankfully, Saks wrote this book. Her story is incredible, and her ability to relate and explain what goes through her head during episodes is remarkable. I don't like to throw the word "inspiring" around, but her story is just that.

Ultimately, however, I was overwhelmed by the book's central message: how many more resources mentally ill people truly need. Saks has managed to control her illness and succeed enormously despite (and, perhaps in some ways, because of) it. However, as she admits, she had so many resources and so much support to help her get through it--and even with that, it took her decades to gain some control over her illness.

In all events, this is a truly eye-opening book that deserves a large readership.
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Elizabeth Romero, March 16, 2009 (view all comments by Elizabeth Romero)
An amazing book of such courage and inspiration..
given that I myself have a mental illness and am constantly trying to stay afloat.. on the boat ..this book means a lot ..
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781401309442
Subtitle:
My Journey Through Madness
Author:
Saks, Elyn R
Author:
Saks, Elyn R.
Publisher:
Hyperion Books
Subject:
Social Scientists & Psychologists
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Scientists & Psychologists
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
Psychopathology - Schizophrenia
Publication Date:
August 2008
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
351
Dimensions:
780x510x100 65
Age Level:
from Al to l0
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