Status
Available
Collection
Library Notes
A copy of this book is also available from the Mental Health Wellness and Resource Centre (MHWRC) in the Galleria (inpatient side) on Level 2 of West 5th Campus. The MHWRC is similar to the Family Resource Centre, but is geared to support those with lived experience. Please call 905-522-1155 ext. 35406 for more information about how to borrow materials from the MHWRC.
Description
A memoir of paranoid schizophrenia by an accomplished professor recounts her first symptoms at the age of eight, her efforts to hide the severity of her condition, and the obstacles she has overcome in the course of her treatment and marriage.
Physical description
368 p.; 5.5 inches
User reviews
LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
We've seen the schizophrenics on the street corner screaming at cars or arguing with the voices in their head. Elyn Saks is schizophrenic, and after a forced admittance to a hospital connected with Yale University where she was attending law school, she was pretty much assured by psychiatrists that
I recommend this book to anyone who want to know more about mental illness and its treatment or about how to live a life of consequence in a demanding world.
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she would be that person. Her parents had some pretty definite shortcomings, but they instilled in her the will and ability to fight and they gave her a strong sense of morality. She fought for herself, for her future and for other people who are ground down by a system that wants to make sure they don't leave the box of their psychiatric diagnosis. She also fought for years against taking the medication that allows her to live the very productive life that she does. Lawyer, advocate, psychoanalyst - with the help of both talk therapy and medical therapy she has managed to make a great success of her life in spite of her body which has betrayed her in many ways. I recommend this book to anyone who want to know more about mental illness and its treatment or about how to live a life of consequence in a demanding world.
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LibraryThing member juliette07
The Centre Cannot Hold : my journey through madness by Elyn R. Saks was one of the post compelling life stories I have had the privilege to read. The mix of life, nurture, medication and psycho-analysis are laid out for the reader as the life story of a wise and inspirational women told in her own
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words. To me there was a theme of power. The powers of friendship, the mind, the human brain, the authorities, academics and professional physicians are all inextricably intertwined in the life of an extraordinary lady. Elyn’s brave and courageous book dispels the myths surrounding mental ill health while at the same time laying bare the often outrageous, taken for granted assumptions and attitudes to those who have a psychiatric history. She tells the journey of how she found her life, not of her cure. In the final paragraph of her book she writes to those who may have a mental illness … ‘the challenge is to find the life that’s right for you. But in truth, isn’t that the challenge for all of us, mentally ill or not?’ Salutary words so full of wisdom for all of us as we journey on through life. Show Less
LibraryThing member 4cebwu
I have to say my opinion about and causal use of the word crazy has changed a lot since i read "The Center Cannot Hold". I have to say I was conflicted about the ethics of Dr. Saks on more than one occasion as she describes her journey through madness. I have great empathy for the folks without her
On the one hand it was quite remarkable reading what she was thinking during her psychotic breaks. I argued against her advocating for 'patients rights' to refuse hospitalization and medication, but one the other hand shouldn't a patient the right to refuse treatment. We seem to be having this debate on so many levels. I for one am for the right to die, so how can I be against the right to refuse treatment? This book raises several philosophical discussions and my hope is that we do have the debate because there are a lot of lives at stake.
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intellect and resources who were not able to work the system both inside and outside like Dr. Saks and I have to wonder if she could have done the same things sooner had she been forced into treatment?On the one hand it was quite remarkable reading what she was thinking during her psychotic breaks. I argued against her advocating for 'patients rights' to refuse hospitalization and medication, but one the other hand shouldn't a patient the right to refuse treatment. We seem to be having this debate on so many levels. I for one am for the right to die, so how can I be against the right to refuse treatment? This book raises several philosophical discussions and my hope is that we do have the debate because there are a lot of lives at stake.
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LibraryThing member cbjorke
This is a personal memoir of schizophrenia and outstanding achievement taking place simultaneously. Elyn Saks earned a masters degree at Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship, graduated from Yale Law School, became a law professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and became a
I'll Never Forget The Day I Read A Book!
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psychotherapist all while being treated for Schizophrenia, with several interruptions for hospitalizations because of severe psychotic episodes. Oh, and she has written several books. On the side she is a cancer survivor. And you thought you had it rough. She is also a founding member of the Click and Clack school of first name spelling. Now go do something with you worthless, miserable life and stop your whining.I'll Never Forget The Day I Read A Book!
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LibraryThing member kristinbell
(5 stars) The Center Cannot Hold is a remarkable memoir about an amazing woman who lives with schizophrenia. The author, Elyn Saks, describes her years with schizophrenia and how she eventually managed to control most of her symptoms through medication and therapy. Not only is she healthy, she has
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also accomplished a great deal. She finished law school and is now a professor in California, not to mention being an author of several books! She also has an active social life which is somewhat rare for people with schizophrenia. Above all else, I think this book gives people with schizophrenia and their loved ones hope that things can improve. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to manage their symptoms as well as Professor Saks, but hope is still hope, and in the world of schizophrenia we will take that kind of inspiration wherever it comes from! I found the book to be highly engaging--a real page-turner for sure. I also had other family members read the book and they thoroughly enjoyed it as well. For people who know nothing about mental illness and schizophrenia in particular, they may be blown away by this book. For people who deal with schizophrenia in their home or work lives, they will surely be blown away. This book is really worth your time and money. One of the best books I've read in ages! I hope you'll love it as I do. Show Less
LibraryThing member campingmomma
So while it was a pretty intense book, it was less scientific or technical than An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison. Saks seemed to have the same perfect career (ultimately) as Jamison. Saks was much more into isolation and that is it what I sympathized with. Though she worked hard during her
It is definately a book worth reading regardless of your diagnosis (or lack there of). She makes it very relatable and not so technical like Jamison. Please don't think, by the way that I didn't enjoy An Unquiet Mind equally as much. Honestly, I looked for some hint of a ghost writter in Saks book the two books were written from such different perspectives.
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schooling I don't know how she did it. I already feel like I have a sticker on my head some days announcing my bipolar. I can't imagine what it would be like if I verbalized or acted it out as Saks did, unwilling.It is definately a book worth reading regardless of your diagnosis (or lack there of). She makes it very relatable and not so technical like Jamison. Please don't think, by the way that I didn't enjoy An Unquiet Mind equally as much. Honestly, I looked for some hint of a ghost writter in Saks book the two books were written from such different perspectives.
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LibraryThing member kageeh
An amazing woman has written an eye-opening book!
No review is going to do justice to this incredible book by Elyn Saks, an academic dean, tenured law school and medical school professor, psychoanalysis student, and, not incidentally, a raving (at times of stress or change) schizophrenic. For
More amazing than the author's current positions in the academic and psychiatric world, the author has had "florid" schizophrenia starting when she was about 8 years old, although it didn't fully appear until she was studying at Oxford U. on a Marshall scholarship. She got her BA at Vanderbilt, graduating valedictorian, and after Oxford, got her law degree at Yale. This is no mediocre woman! Her vivid and precise descriptions of her hallucinations and psychotic breaks are like nothing I have ever read before. Her incredible ability to cover up "the voices" and disorganized thoughts to enable her to progress through life more successfully than most "normal" people, is unmatched, although change and stress will still make her rave like a maniac. It takes Ms. Saks almost 20 years of failures and forced hospital commitments to finally realize she needs to take medication for her entire life. But, unlike most people with schizophrenia one is likely to meet or read about, she was helped tremendously by psychoanalysis and talk therapy, treatments that have long been thought useless with such patients.
I have never before encountered such a book nor such a person as Elyn Saks. She leads an amazing and courageous life and has published numerous academic treatises about the forced institutionalization, restraint, and medication of the mentally ill. I know there is a lot more to come from this astonishing mind.
No review is going to do justice to this incredible book by Elyn Saks, an academic dean, tenured law school and medical school professor, psychoanalysis student, and, not incidentally, a raving (at times of stress or change) schizophrenic. For
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readers who assume schizophrenics live out their lives, if we can really call their bare existences lives, shackled literally by physical restraints or zombie-d by antipsychotic drugs, always perched to incite violence against themselves or others, or slinking along building walls muttering about being god and killing people with their thoughts, this is a must-read book unlike any other in the field.More amazing than the author's current positions in the academic and psychiatric world, the author has had "florid" schizophrenia starting when she was about 8 years old, although it didn't fully appear until she was studying at Oxford U. on a Marshall scholarship. She got her BA at Vanderbilt, graduating valedictorian, and after Oxford, got her law degree at Yale. This is no mediocre woman! Her vivid and precise descriptions of her hallucinations and psychotic breaks are like nothing I have ever read before. Her incredible ability to cover up "the voices" and disorganized thoughts to enable her to progress through life more successfully than most "normal" people, is unmatched, although change and stress will still make her rave like a maniac. It takes Ms. Saks almost 20 years of failures and forced hospital commitments to finally realize she needs to take medication for her entire life. But, unlike most people with schizophrenia one is likely to meet or read about, she was helped tremendously by psychoanalysis and talk therapy, treatments that have long been thought useless with such patients.
I have never before encountered such a book nor such a person as Elyn Saks. She leads an amazing and courageous life and has published numerous academic treatises about the forced institutionalization, restraint, and medication of the mentally ill. I know there is a lot more to come from this astonishing mind.
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LibraryThing member goofgirl93004
The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks is a riveting tale of schizophrenia that is at once nightmarish and inspiring. Alternating between lucidity and delusions, Saks struggles against her illness to complete her education and become a working member of society. Her description of the halucinations,
The memoir is well written. While she champions for rights for those with mental illness, she raises the bar of functionality and shows us through the story of her strength, determination, and finally acceptance of her illness, that success in life is possible for the mentally ill. I felt completely immursed in her story and found it a difficult book to put down until the end. Anyone with friends or family who are affected by schizophrenia should read this book. It will deepen your understanding of their struggle and give you hope that things can change. Those readers who simply have an interest in mental illness, stories of struggle and inspiration, or just an interesting story would find this book a good read.
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delusions, and madness she experiences gives the reader a rare first person account of what it is like to suffer from schizophrenia. Meanwhile she details her lifelong battle with the need for medication and the vicious circle experienced by so many with schizophrenia: they take medication to feel better, they feel better so they stop taking medication, they lose touch with reality and need to be medicated, and so on. Saks successfully, although frustratingly, navigates through these pitfalls to ultimately succeed in a relationship and her career. The memoir is well written. While she champions for rights for those with mental illness, she raises the bar of functionality and shows us through the story of her strength, determination, and finally acceptance of her illness, that success in life is possible for the mentally ill. I felt completely immursed in her story and found it a difficult book to put down until the end. Anyone with friends or family who are affected by schizophrenia should read this book. It will deepen your understanding of their struggle and give you hope that things can change. Those readers who simply have an interest in mental illness, stories of struggle and inspiration, or just an interesting story would find this book a good read.
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LibraryThing member 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
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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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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LibraryThing member ammurphy
The author chronicles her severe bouts with schizophrenia and the wonderful cast of supporters in colleagues, therapists, and friends. She becomes a lawyer and a psychotherapist herself and learns to live, well, with her illness. An amazing individual and support group.
LibraryThing member hnbrown
A wonderfully non-melodramatic account of living with schizophrenia. There are few accounts of living with psychosis, in part because those who are afflicted with it don't have the means to report back from that terrible land. Saks' keen intelligence, insights, and narrative gifts make this a
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moving and disturbing look at the life of the mind when that mind is intermittently delusional. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member BONS
Author, Elyn Saks notices very early on that something is not quite right when the houses on the way home from school give her commands. I read with both heartache and awe as this young woman manages to fight her mental illness through college, Oxford and then on Yale. Her story reveals so many
Powerful fight, powerful story. This story will stay with me for a very long time and hopefully give me new eyes and a bigger heart to this issue.
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varied treatments including the use of tie downs and straps in the US not so in England. Her story also reveals the stigmatism associated with mental illness even her own form of discrimination toward someone else.Powerful fight, powerful story. This story will stay with me for a very long time and hopefully give me new eyes and a bigger heart to this issue.
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LibraryThing member Pennydart
Elyn Saks is a distinguished law professor at USC, where she holds an endowed chair; she is a published author who has studied psychoanalysis; she is someone with a husband and many dear friends; and she is a schizophrenic. “The Center Cannot Hold,” her 2007 autobiography, traces her fall into
Even as a child, Saks had experiences that may have presaged her later illness, most notably when she came to believe that the houses she passed on her walk to school were sending her messages. However, she made her way through high school, graduated from college, and then moved to Oxford with a Marshall Scholarship before experiencing her first psychotic break. Over the next two decades, she struggled to control her illness. She obtained significant help from psychoanalysis, despite the common belief that the talking cure does little for schizophrenia. She also benefitting enormously from antipsychotic medicine, although she repeatedly tried to wean herself from drugs, both because she was afraid of their side effects and because they clearly represented the diagnosis she did not want to accept. Each time, her illness returned with a vengeance, and she had to return to the drugs, which she finally realized were saving her life.
Saks’ book takes its title from a quotation from Yeats: “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” It’s a fitting description of Saks’ psychotic breaks, which are essentially, periods of mental anarchy. As she describes it: “Place yourself in the middle of the room. Turn on the stereo, the television, the beeping video game, and then invite into the room several small children with ice cream cones. Crank up the volume on each piece of electrical equipment, then take away the children’s ice cream.
Even more harrowing than Saks’ psychoses, however, are the ways in which she’s treated during her psychotic episodes. In contrast to the humane, dignity-preserving treatment she receives at a British hospital while she’s at Oxford, what happens to her when she goes to the E.R. while at Yale Law School is horrifying. She’s immediately put into restraints, which make her even more agitated and scared, and is force-fed medicine without her consent. It’s the first of several such experiences, and it illustrates a particularly poignant problem for psychiatric patients: “The conundrum: Say what’s on your mind and there’ll be [negative] consequences; struggle to keep the delusions to yourself, and it’s likely you won’t get the help you need.”
Saks is determined to have a life despite her illness, and, she succeeds, against the odds. (She reports that only 20% of people with schizophrenia can be expected to live independently and to hold a job. ) As is probably always the case in any remarkable life, she is helped by remarkable people, including her beloved “Mrs. Jones,” her first psychoanalyst, with whom she develops an intense relationship, treating her almost as a mother figure; Steve Behnke, an extraordinarily close friend whom she meets in law school and on whom she relies on in many ways—she notes that to the current day, they speak almost daily; and her husband Will, who completes her journey to a full life when he accepts her for who she is and marries her.
Reading this book is both profoundly painful, and deeply uplifting.
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madness, and her slow climb out. Just as Temple Grandin’s “Emergence” made it possible to begin to understand what it is really like to be autistic, and William Stryon’s “Darkness Visible” did the same for serious depression, “The Center Cannot Hold” provides a remarkable account of what it is like to experience psychosis—and what it is like to have the resilience to nonetheless create a successful, productive, happy life. Even as a child, Saks had experiences that may have presaged her later illness, most notably when she came to believe that the houses she passed on her walk to school were sending her messages. However, she made her way through high school, graduated from college, and then moved to Oxford with a Marshall Scholarship before experiencing her first psychotic break. Over the next two decades, she struggled to control her illness. She obtained significant help from psychoanalysis, despite the common belief that the talking cure does little for schizophrenia. She also benefitting enormously from antipsychotic medicine, although she repeatedly tried to wean herself from drugs, both because she was afraid of their side effects and because they clearly represented the diagnosis she did not want to accept. Each time, her illness returned with a vengeance, and she had to return to the drugs, which she finally realized were saving her life.
Saks’ book takes its title from a quotation from Yeats: “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” It’s a fitting description of Saks’ psychotic breaks, which are essentially, periods of mental anarchy. As she describes it: “Place yourself in the middle of the room. Turn on the stereo, the television, the beeping video game, and then invite into the room several small children with ice cream cones. Crank up the volume on each piece of electrical equipment, then take away the children’s ice cream.
Even more harrowing than Saks’ psychoses, however, are the ways in which she’s treated during her psychotic episodes. In contrast to the humane, dignity-preserving treatment she receives at a British hospital while she’s at Oxford, what happens to her when she goes to the E.R. while at Yale Law School is horrifying. She’s immediately put into restraints, which make her even more agitated and scared, and is force-fed medicine without her consent. It’s the first of several such experiences, and it illustrates a particularly poignant problem for psychiatric patients: “The conundrum: Say what’s on your mind and there’ll be [negative] consequences; struggle to keep the delusions to yourself, and it’s likely you won’t get the help you need.”
Saks is determined to have a life despite her illness, and, she succeeds, against the odds. (She reports that only 20% of people with schizophrenia can be expected to live independently and to hold a job. ) As is probably always the case in any remarkable life, she is helped by remarkable people, including her beloved “Mrs. Jones,” her first psychoanalyst, with whom she develops an intense relationship, treating her almost as a mother figure; Steve Behnke, an extraordinarily close friend whom she meets in law school and on whom she relies on in many ways—she notes that to the current day, they speak almost daily; and her husband Will, who completes her journey to a full life when he accepts her for who she is and marries her.
Reading this book is both profoundly painful, and deeply uplifting.
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LibraryThing member wwtct
If only everyone could write memoirs this captivating.
LibraryThing member pamdierickx
Amazing autobiography of a highly intelligent,woman who suceeded as an academic at University of Southern California school of law. She attained the highest honors of the school and attended many other universities and graduated. She became a wife, successful friend, married, all with a diagnisos
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of schizophrenia. Show Less
LibraryThing member earthforms
If only everyone could write memoirs this captivating.
LibraryThing member ouroborosangel
Wow, what an amazing book by an amazing woman. I'm not usually a fan of autobiographies, but this one just blew me away. You will not believe how far this woman goes in life while dealing with the everyday realities of her schizophrenia. I can't even tell you what she ends of doing by the end of
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the book, or it will ruin it for you. READ THIS BOOK. It will make you look at the blessings in your life in an entirely new and thought-provoking way. Show Less
LibraryThing member kmmsb459
There but for the grace of god . . . What a fascinating book.
LibraryThing member lilulak
f*ck*ng brilliant
LibraryThing member jasoncomely
I learned a lot about schizophrenia from this well-paced autobiography, and it rekindled my love for psychoanalysis. Definitely one of my favorite reads of 2019.
LibraryThing member bobbieharv
A pretty amazing book by a very very smart lawyer who somehow manages to practice, teach psychiatry, and remember what it feels like and the actual words she uses when she relapses.
LibraryThing member steve02476
Fascinating story told by a schizophrenic woman who managed to graduate Yale Law and then become a tenured professor, all the while struggling against delusions and other symptoms. Not a poetic book but it felt very honest and it was a way to get a bit of a clue to what psychosis must feel like.
Original publication date
2007
ISBN
9781401309442