The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

A riveting and touching memoir of an intelligent, successful woman living with schizophrenia. Saks writes remarkably well about a remarkable life (and a remarkable mind). Her life has been one of big successes (she breezes through academic stratospheres like Vanderbilt, Oxford's BPhil in philosophy - supposedly the hardest degree there! - and Yale Law School; she's now a successful law school academic), constantly marred by psychotic episodes that get progressively more intense as Saks refuses to acknowledge what becomes increasingly evident: she has schizophrenia, and will need to live the rest of her life on antipsychotic medication. It's a hard pill to swallow (no pun intended), and you - as the reader - get increasingly fed up with her impossible hopes to live a med-free life. At the same time, you're with her on that journey: this is a compassionate, humane book.

This is at once a memoir of mental illness, as well as a critique of the institutions surrounding mental illness in America from the 70s until today. Suffice to say, things aren't great when your mind can waylay you with florid psychosis; but they're made worse when the institutions meant to help you are brutal or inhumane or just plain stupid (e.g. Saks being tied to a bed for 30+ hours, and not being let go until hospital staff are convinced she is “calm” - who would be calm after 30+ hours chained to a bed?!). Saks highlights the more humane treatment options she faced in Oxford in the 70s; she also, with hope, illuminates how the treatment of psychotic illnesses has improved over the years (better meds!). And, in the end, her life story is one with a happy ending - she surmounts big odds, learning to not only live, but live WELL, with her illness. Inspiring.