The Center Cannot Hold
My Journey Through Madness
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4.7 • 217 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A much-praised memoir of living and surviving mental illness as well as "a stereotype-shattering look at a tenacious woman whose brain is her best friend and her worst enemy" (Time).
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, moving 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 as 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.
Customer Reviews
Has changed my entire view
My sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia about 10 years ago. I have grieved the lucid part of her I haven’t seen since. This book gave me the insight into the ways a thought disorder could communicate feelings harder for people with schizophrenia to articulate.
I was 14 at the start of her diagnosis, and in a place where very little resources were available for mental health and for low income families. I hope this book reminds me of the ways I can be there for her, and help her add more to her life. I know she isn’t solely defined by her illness, and this book brings me the realization that schizophrenia can be a spectrum and not a binary. Thank you so much, Elyn Saks, for healing some parts of me that blamed myself for the pain I have seen my sister in. I love her so much, and I appreciate you dearly for publishing this.
Fantastic read
Sacks is amazing and this book is insightful and gripping
A must read, wonderful book!
This is SO worth reading! She lets you know what life is like with mental health issues, and teaching at a top university. Seeing how and why one decides to go off meds, is heartbreaking, and the family that is there to help her through those times is heartbreaking.