The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

Wow. What can I say? This book is such an excellent read that I recommend it to everyone and anyone who is interested in reading an autobiography about a Jewish woman who overcame a livelong battle with a mental illness only to emerge victorious and highly successful, helping countless people in the process. I recently bought this book after researching similar ones on Amazon about schizophrenia. I wanted to read about the mental illness and share it with someone who also wanted to read and discuss the same book together. I was given the task of choosing such a book. After reading many book reviews, this one had the most reviews, most positive reviews, and when I read the synopsis, I decided it was it. This was the book. This book was so hard to put down. I read it from cover to cover in a matter of a few days. It would have taken me a shorter time, had I had the time to sit down and read it all in one go. It was a real page turner, really well written, highly entertaining and informative, and beautifully crafted. The real events in her life dealing with schizophrenia are sad and terrifying, but it was something she suffered through and remembered clearly enough to retell it in highly descriptive detail, drawing the reader in with every battle. I especially loved the ending, with her recent academic accomplishments and accolades and of course, her wedding to her husband. The Center Cannot Hold was a comforting and thrilling read for me. Although I could not relate to much of her life and experiences, the book was moving and touching. I highly recommend Elyn Saks's book, The Center Cannot Hold to my parents, friends, family, and husband as well as to everyone in the general public. It is an excellent book that is well worth your time and money.

Well, I think this book is maybe the best book that I read in my whole life. Besides tell us the story of her life, Elyn Saks tell us what a person suffering from schizophrenia thinks and feels during her crisis. Off course that each person is different, but to "healthy" people, know about this is a invaluable knowledge. I was very surprised when she describes that she was shamed because while she was tied during a crisis, in the hospital, the door was open and all people that passed in front that door can see her. Usually we think that mental patients do not completely realize the reactions of the others, so, probably a lot of us don't bother in completely hide our discomfort when in presence of their crisis, probably hurting them still more. This book can teach all of us to be more sensible and solidary to mental ill people, but it is a distressful reading, because we suffer together with the author, chapter after chapter. I did a bad choice to decide reading all book in the bus, because in the last chapter I had to use a lot of self control to avoid to cry. One reviewer seem a little uncomfortable because the author repeatedly cites her intellectual merits, but I think that is absolutely necessary, because the healthy people usually think of mentally ill people like mentally lame, and probably it is not easy to break this misconception, so, her emphasis is welcome and is not a sign of poor writing, but of good writing abilities. She knows what is important to reiterate to her message can be understood. You don't break prejudices only explaining fact after fact, prejudices are hypnotic standards of thought, so you need treat them according and hit the same key again and again and again... Well, I am not that kind of reviewer that put a summary of each chapter, if you want this, try the "Look inside" feature. I think that is much more useful to tell what a person think and feels about the book, because these human reactions are what we share in commom and says more about the books than a summary. Now, I want to say some few things about this sickness, and if you are a materialistic person or a Christian person ( the type of person that think that the bible has all answers), stop to read here, to avoid waste your time. Elyn Saks describes some situations about her "delusions" that seems clearly psychic attacks and this hypothesis should be checked too, together with the schizophrenia hypothesis. In our materialistic society any time when a person see, hears or feels anything that is not physically present, this is interpreted like madness. It is so with astral projection, with see/hear spirits, auras, elementals, or pre/retrocognition. The materialistic point of view is very ignorant about this matters, so, its conclusions has completely no value in this subject. The fact the medicines were able to control or stop the delusions only shows the the medicines can block the perceptions of the person. Off course, a good part of the psychic attack is nothing more than spiritual bullying, so, if you can prevent the victim of perceive the bullying, you can block the negatives effects of the psychic attack, WHILE YOU TAKE YOUR MEDICINES. However, like the most in the medicine, you are only treating the symptoms, not the cause, that MAY be spiritual. A lot of things that Elyn Saks saw or thought during her crisis ( and a lot of mental diseases, but not all of them) , mainly her thoughts about she worth nothing, are the usual technique in psychic attacks, and if she had knew some reliable psychic ( the reliable never will charge any money for this) maybe she can find another answers to her situation, and another solutions. I know that this maybe sounds a little strange in the American culture, but if you can tolerates learn about spiritualism, you can discover that there are more facts than beliefs about this situations. However, IF situations the Elyn tells us about were, in fact, psychic attack, not schizophrenia, even so they are very hard to solve, because there are strong reasons to this kind of problem, usually a person never faces hard problems without strong reasons to them, and in this kind of situation, I mean, psychic attack, usually the offenders were, usually, victims in past incarnations, and the actual victim is, usually (but not always), the tormentor. Silt the actual victim with medicines can help her, but will not solve the problem, IF THE PROBLEMS WERE NOT MENTAL. Anyway, only a psychic can say if there were any real entities attacking the victim or if all was only delusion, a materialistic doctor is not able to conclude nothing about this. In a ideal world, the psychiatrist should be a psychic too. To those people that has any curiosity about the several problems and nuances of psychic attacks and methods of solutions that SOME GROUPS of spiritualists uses, this book has a lot of study cases: Spirit and Matter: New Horizons for Medicine I think that people suffering with mental disorders lose a lot to confine themselves to materialistic point of view, but anyone has the right to only accept the solutions that are according with their beliefs, even if this only treat the symptoms, not the cause.

I found Ms. Saks book thoroughly engaging. I couldn't put it down & finished it in 2 days. I thought the writing was very good. Her descriptions of her psychosis so that those of us who've never experienced schizophrenic delusions can understand what they're like were superbly written. She writes in an informative but conversational tone so that it makes you feel like you're her friend & she's confiding in you. The book read quick and was gripping along the way, going from normal moments of life at an Ivy League school to stark moments of disoriented psychosis. The book was often repetitive. The author's constant and consistently present idea that staying on medication (even though it kept her sane) indicated that she was a failure makes the book a bit monotonous. Elyn has some stress in life, becomes psychotic, gets medication that helps, then refuses to take it because that would make her a failure. After awhile you just want to jump through the pages and scream "Stay on your meds!" But I guess that's the truth of how things happened so that's what she wrote. It just gets a bit frustrating. Also, I found the author to be a tad self-congratulatory for my taste, though I understand how proud she must have been to be accomplishing what she was, despite having such a debilitating mental illness. Some questions, for me at least, were left unanswered, mostly regarding her delusions and how she related to them from the inside. She speaks of them in stunning cogent detail but mostly like she is witnessing them from outside herself. Then again, maybe she was. I have noticed many people's negative reviews surround Elyn's privileged status. Mainly, she was able to get education and treatment that other schizophrenics don't have. True, but hardly a reason to review the book negatively. Should she not have written it because she wasn't poor? Plus, several times in the book she cites that she stayed in England and got treated there (for a time) rather than return to the US because of how less expensive it was to get treatment in the UK. I see this same kind of classist vitriol (of the reviewers) in another book I enjoy in this genre Prozac Nation. For some reason people get angry when people with mental illness are lucky enough to have some money which can help them succeed. Perhaps they have empathy towards those in the same predicament but who are simply (and unfortunately) less fortunate. But that's not Elyn's fault. This book is about her life with her disease. It's not a treatise on schizophrenia in general nor is it a composite sketch of everyone with the disease. It's the truth as she lived it. And a bleak and powerful one at that.

Book Review The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness By: Elyn S. Saks When it comes to the life of Elyn Saks, she has quite a story to tell. I feel this book was intended to be read by anyone looking for a firsthand experience of daily life, through the eyes of a schizophrenic. I believe that the authors goal was to explain the struggles of schizophrenia and allow readers to have a deeper understanding of the person and not just the disease. Being an avid reader myself, but finding a good book hard to come by, I can say I thoroughly enjoyed this read. While I typically read more crime based books by James Patterson, I found this book to be equally as entertaining. I found myself unwilling to put it down. Constantly keeping me on the edge of my seat, compelled to know more. While exploring my pervious interest in schizophrenia, I found this book took that interest to a whole new level. Over ten years ago while in high school I wrote a research paper on schizophrenia, and found it to be an incredibly interesting topic. While reading this book I found myself no longer looking at these people as “messed up” or “broken”, but began to see them (Elyn) in a new, more companionate light, I believe that this book could likely make even the toughest critic, look at those suffering from schizophrenia a little more softly. While reading I found myself extremely interested in her perception of her moments where she lost all self-control. Like a time when she climbed onto the roof of the library, or when she ran into the snow, convinced she was escaping. It seems as though since she came from a “normal”, middle class family, no one expected her to fall victim to the “schizophrenia fog, that slowly rolls in and engulfs someone’s life”. I found this to be an overall incredible read. Elyn Saks completely drew me in and left me wanting to know more. Her ability to make herself and the disease so relatable was amazing. The worst part of the book was the fact that it ended. I felt the same emptiness, at the end of this book as I do after wrapping up a binge watching session of one of my favorite shows. In conclusion, if you are looking for book that’s far from mind numbing and unbelievably interesting, I suggest you pick up this book, crack it open, and enjoy the ride.

This is an awesome book by an awesome woman. The model of mental illness in this country is so wrong. I, unfortunately, went through the mental health system as I was depressed my senior year in college. The next TWENTY years of my life were spent going in and out of hospitals, and on and off many medications. I don't believe that any of my experience, in any form, was necessary—a belief that became more concrete as I read through this book. The traumas that I experienced as a patient far outweighed the traumas I had experienced prior to my status as a "mental patient." What I needed my senior year in college were skills. I needed coping skills. I needed someone to listen to me, not medicate me. I needed direction and guidance, and someone to help me figure out what to do with my life. I had a doctor that didn't just miss the horses and think that they were zebras, he thought they were unicorns! The point is: I have an excellent doctor. I'm on one medication (an antidepressant). I didn't need all that crap. Elyn Saks' story is a testament to the power of the human relationship. Her relationship with her analyst(s), despite how people predict that schizophrenics cannot have these types of therapeutic relationships, speaks to the power that an individual can have in making his or her own decisions. Listening and guiding a person, not being authoritarian and taking away a person's sense of self, is helpful, and is the role of the analyst. And all the crap that people say when they're depressed or psychotic—well, it's crap. It seems like she said a lot of things to her analyst(s), and if they had taken these words along the course of what might be considered "normal" treatment, she would have been locked up over and over. Mentally ill people are LESS violent than the rest of the population—it's just nice for the news media to harp on them as it makes a good story. One fifth of Americans might have experienced a mental illness (maybe more), yet it's always about THEM, and "those people." It's us. It's all of us. People are assets, and should be treated as such. I wasn't a law student, I wasn't, and am not schizophrenic, but my initial experiences were remarkably similar. I, however, ended up in the hospital over and over again. When I went to a new doctor, the doctor took the past diagnosis as a definite thing—as if psychiatric diagnoses are as concrete as a blood test. Doctors have heuristics. Doctors have depended on the biopsycho model (drug companies benefit from it, and families do as well... no one has to take responsibility for bad behavior, it's all a "chemical imbalance."), and that model is incorrect. This book made me cry. Doctors should read it when they become residents.

"I needed to put two critical ideas together: that I could both be mentally ill and lead a rich and satisfying life." ~ (Locations 5056-58) Elyn R. Saks is a professor who has struggled with schizophrenia for most of her life. As a child she became slightly obsessive compulsive and then anorexic. As she grew older she started to have more symptoms of the disease and suffered for many years without medication. Throughout the book you will read completely honest revelations of what it is like to be on medication and to be off medication. You will be amazed at how creative a writer Elyn R. Saks is and how she remembers precises details of her life, even down to conversations she had with numerous people. Obviously she has a brilliant mind to remember with such clarity. At times this book can be shockingly honest but it is never frightening as I thought it might be. Elyn R. Saks always seems to have protections in place so when she falls gravely ill she has a support system and friends to help her. For some of the book you may feel frustrated that Elyn R. Saks thinks she can function without medication. Each time she is thrown back into a debilitating psychosis. The triggers are interesting and for that reason I think this book can explain a mentally ill person's basic needs for understanding and support. As we watch Elyn R. Saks struggle with her demons we are invited into a very private world of fears most will never experience. People who are mentally ill will however really relate to the hallucinations and voices and feeling of impending doom. Overall this book is a captivating and compelling story of one woman's journey to happiness and success. As I finished this book I was so glad I had read it. The ending is profound and when Elyn R. Saks comes to terms with her illness you will feel a great sense of relief. ~The Rebecca Review

"The Center Cannot Hold" by Elyn R. Saks I acquired this book through my daily emails from BookBub and this one particularly stood out to me. In my quest to read books that are on atypical topics, this one fit the mold perfectly! As an individual who has never experienced mental health issues, I have always sought to understand and read books such as this; books that tell of the experience from the perspective of someone who lives through it. Unfortunately, we live in a day and age in which mental health continues to be stigmatized, particularly in the case of conditions such as schizophrenia. This happens, in part, because the only time we are ever exposed to such a disease is through a negative and skewed lens. This book was a joy to read, but it was also incredibly hard. Elyn did an amazing job of relaying her life experiences with her disease, so much so that at times I felt as if my thoughts were also becoming disorganized. She blew me away with her way of presenting to the reader the disorganized thinking that is typical of an individual with schizophrenia. And because of her ability to coherently give the reader insight to this pattern of thinking, you begin to understand why and how an individual could find themselves thinking the thoughts that they are. Elyn writes in a manner that makes it easy for you to feel like you are there with her, during her entire journey of trying to come to terms with her disease. You grow attached to some of her therapists and doctors, just as you are appalled at the behaviors of others. You feel her anxiety when having to change therapists, and hope the next one will be attune to her needs. Most importantly, you begin to understand why someone with her disease would be so focused on not taking any medicine. This is again, something that those of us who have never experienced such illnesses cannot even begin to understand. I definitely count myself lucky for having stumbled upon this book and it has given me invaluable insight on what it means to have schizophrenia and the harrowing journey that many who have this disease must face. Most importantly, I feel like I have a slightly better understanding of the disease itself and how it affects those who have it. Would recommend to anyone who is a fan of memoirs and is interested in finally having schizophrenia explained from the perspective of one affected by it. *Please remember that calling someone a schizophrenic is offensive for it makes the person and the disease one. When a person has cancer you do not start calling them cancerous, or say they are cancer, just as you should not call someone with schizophrenia a schizophrenic.

This book gets my vote for Book of the Year. Saks is an acclaimed professor of law and psychiatry. She also struggles with severe symptoms of schizophrenia. She risked her reputation in academia in order to give hope to others like herself, and to counter the negative stereotypes about mental illness held by both the general public and mental health professionals: "I wanted to dispel the myths ... that people with a significant thought disorder cannot live independently, cannot work at challenging jobs, cannot have true friendships, cannot be in meaningful, sexually satisfying love relationships, cannot lead lives of intellectual, spiritual, or emotional richness." The topic is inherently compelling, and Saks masterfully describes what it is like to be tormented by inner demons, to be forcibly restrained on a hospital bed, to require medications that alter one's mental state and can cause horrific, irreversible side effects. She articulately describes her years of talk therapy, in which she came to understand the functional underpinnings of her psychotic thoughts, for example in warding off feelings that would have been consciously threatening. I enjoyed her dry humor in highlighting the condescension and absurdities of the mental health system. In one case she reviewed during a legal internship, the patient was restrained because he refused to get out of bed. In another case, a young man was deemed delusional because he continually spoke with "imaginary lawyers" - who turned out to be none other than Saks and her colleague. For years, in order to excel, Saks had to lead a double life. Swirling around her, constantly threatening, was the stigma of mental illness. While writing an academic paper on restraints, she asked a professor, "Wouldn't you agree that being restrained is incredibly degrading, not to mention painful and frightening?" With a kind and knowing look, the professor responded: "These people are different from you and me. It doesn't affect them the way it would affect us." This book is especially important reading for mental health professionals in the United States, where medication reigns supreme (it has become practically taboo to recommend psychotherapy for severe psychosis, despite ongoing research establishing its efficacy) and coercion often trumps choice. Saks contrasts her experiences of being hospitalized both in the United States and in England, where restraints have not been in widespread use for more than 200 years. In doing so, she gives us a deeper appreciation of the trauma induced by coercive and sometimes brutal treatment. "The Little Engine that Could" is what her close friend Steve Behnke calls her, referring to her indomitable spirit even in the face of hospital clinicians' dire predictions about her future. I highly recommend this courageous and brilliant memoir.

Interesting and well written enlightened view of psychosis

統合失調症の米人女性が書いた自伝です。 著者のエリン・サクスさんがTEDでスピーチしているのを見て、興味が出てKindleでダウンロード購入しました。 英語版も素晴らしいですが、邦訳版も出て欲しいです。

By far the best book. I‘ve ever read. A very touching and relatable story about living with an mental illness. A must read for any schizophrenic out there.

Please translate for more langages. Im Brazilian! I hope my loved one can read it some day. Mais estudantes de psicologia, profissionais da saude, pessoas com essa doença mental e familiares poderia ter acesso. We can mourn and than acept our limits while reading. I were looking for some good reference. There it is! Hehe im very thankfull.

A 'no holds barred' journey through the mindfield /minefield of schizophrenia. Very helpful in understanding the delusional, negative and persecutory thoughts and voices experiences by someone suffering from this debilitating illness. I have learned, through this author, how to be a 'therapeutic friend' to someone experiencing ongoing psychosis , and to encourage and enable self-management. There is 'a hope in Hell'.