The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

My rating:

add to my books

The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

by Elyn R. Saks

4.11 · rating details · 1,466 ratings · 325 reviews

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 ...more

Paperback, 368 pages

Published August 12th 2008 by Hyperion

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat & Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Medicine and Literature

185th out of 536 books — 368 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,445)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Dec 01, 2008

Osho rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, memoir-biography, psychology

In the tradition of Kay Redfield Jamison, Elyn Saks, a person with a major psychiatric disorder, presents her own history from childhood to her present status as a successful professional specializing in that disorder. In Saks's case, that disorder is schizophrenia, a diagnosis with a much poorer prognosis for a successful adulthood than many others.

Saks's account is both readable and meticulous, with only a few editing problems. She is careful neither to overdramatize nor underplay ...moreIn the tradition of Kay Redfield Jamison, Elyn Saks, a person with a major psychiatric disorder, presents her own history from childhood to her present status as a successful professional specializing in that disorder. In Saks's case, that disorder is schizophrenia, a diagnosis with a much poorer prognosis for a successful adulthood than many others.

Saks's account is both readable and meticulous, with only a few editing problems. She is careful neither to overdramatize nor underplay her psychotic episodes or her progress and great accomplishments. Anyone who has been forcibly put into mechanical restraints in the last couple of decades and been evaluated frequently for a lower level intervention (or has successfully pursued a grievance if they were not) has Saks to thank for her legal advocacy.

I would have liked to know more about the quality and character of her relationships with family and friends, but recognize that memoirists may choose to protect aspect of their own and others' privacy. I also would have liked to have a better sense of her psychosis. This is an area where Saks tells more than she shows.

Saks suggests, and I agree, that there may be many causes of schizophrenic spectrum disorders; this in turn implies that different people will have different constellations of disordered thinking, some more pernicious, some more dangerous, and some more treatable. When she is psychotic, Saks experiences what seems to be poor judgment, low insight, disorganization, and a relatively consistent set of paranoid delusions. At the same time, she seems to have good or very good responses to several medications, to recompensate quickly, to return to her high level of baseline functioning, to maintain meaningful and complex relationships, and to have a good emotional range. Since she also describes a variety of other physical problems, it would not surprise me if her schizophrenia were related to a greater underlying physical problem.

As a side note, I enjoyed reading about Saks's long friendship with her law school friend Steven Behnke. I'd be interested to know how he would tell the story of his friendship with Saks, as Ann Patchett did with Lucy Grealy in Truth and Beauty.

I am not sure why Saks's diagnosis is schizophrenia rather than schizoaffective disorder. The big difference between these schizophrenic spectrum diagnoses is the presence of a mood disorder simultaneous with an episode of the thought disorder, and Saks is often diagnosed as depressed while she apparently is also psychotic. Since she works in psychiatry, I assume that she is accurate and that the evidence for this differential diagnosis is not reported in her memoir. (less)

like 6 likes

· see review

Aug 03, 2010

Robert rated it

· review of another edition

It's a little sad and frustrating when people read this and say things like "whenever she's off her meds, she has an episode, she should just stay on them!".

The most difficult thing in treating mentally ill people is getting them to take and stay on their meds for reasons she details in her book. First, there are usually pretty severe side effects such as permanent nerve damage that causes you to twitch and spasm constantly, have trouble thinking clearly, have no energy and...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Jul 20, 2008

Rebecca rated it

· review of another edition

The Center Cannot Hold offers a rare peek into the raging mind of a schizophrenic. While the author is anything but a case study (she is brilliant and accomplished even by mentally intact standards, whereas schizophrenia is usually accompanied by low IQ and functional impairment) her uncommon mental clarity enables her to shed light on an otherwise inscrutable disorder.

Of the several memoirs of mental illness I've read, this book offers the most convincing dialogue of psychotic and d...moreThe Center Cannot Hold offers a rare peek into the raging mind of a schizophrenic. While the author is anything but a case study (she is brilliant and accomplished even by mentally intact standards, whereas schizophrenia is usually accompanied by low IQ and functional impairment) her uncommon mental clarity enables her to shed light on an otherwise inscrutable disorder.

Of the several memoirs of mental illness I've read, this book offers the most convincing dialogue of psychotic and depressed characters. It also offers an unflinching and disturbing view of the Freudian psychoanalytic tactics used to treat the mentally ill. From a conversation with the author's psychoanalyst, Mrs. Jones:

The author: I am in control. I control the world. The world is at my whim. I control the world and everything in it.
Mrs. Jones: You want to feel in control because in fact you feel so helpless.
The author: I had a dream. I was making golf balls out of fetuses.
Mrs. Jones: You want to kill babies, you see, and then make a game out of it. You are jealous of the other babies. Jealous of your brothers, jealous of other patients. You want to kill them. And then you want to turn them into little balls so you can smack them again.
...
"Are you trying to kill me?" I hissed. "I know about the bombs. I can make a bomb, too. You are the devil. You are trying to kill me. I am evil. I've killed you three times today. I can do it again."

The author’s compassionate treatment of the mentally ill does a great service to readers. She assumes the role of educator and advocate. She convincingly makes a case against the American mental health system, which too often confiscates the autonomy and dignity of its charges, and argues passionately against the use of physical restraints among even violent mental patients. Her push for broader emotional therapies for the mentally ill in tandem with pharmacological treatment (as opposed to the solely pharmacological approach found too often in the US) is powerful and, with luck, will change the minds of medical professionals.

As a book, however, the memoir is imperfect. The author arranges events in strict chronology, and gives every event the same narrative weight: her high school experimentation with mescaline, her major psychotic episodes, her first day at law school, the occasions on which she meets minor characters. She probably intends to imbue each incident with the same emotional value, to showcase her normality along with her abnormality. Unfortunately, it has the effect of diluting the plot (even a memoir must be propelled along some trajectory).

Even more unfortunate, however, is the author’s tendency to reveal her own impoverished capacity for sympathy and insight. Resentment clouds her portrayal of her long-time psychoanalyst. ("He'd rejected me, he'd betrayed me.") She also describes her parents' growing remoteness with the kind of thoughtless confessionalism one might expect from a reality show contestant. It is clear that the author has omitted her role in the deterioration of those relationships, and fails to understand the damage her indiscretion will cause to the people in her life. Worse, neither of these accounts are relevant to the development of the characters or to the progression of the memoir--rather than meaningful revelation, they smack of careless slander.

Ultimately, the book reads not as a cohesive memoir but as a diary, circumscribed by the author's own very limited perspective, occasionally muddled, but extraordinary nonetheless.
(less)

like 5 likes

· see review

Sep 18, 2007

Terry rated it

· review of another edition

This book is written by a friend/mentor of mine at USC. It was extremely bizarre to read something so intimate by & about someone I know, so my experience of reading it will be different from the experience of others. That said, I think it's quite powerful. What Elyn is able to pull off is describing, from her currently "sane" place, what it feels like to be severely schizophrenic. Her bridge-building into that experience is rare and worthwhile, and can move a reader's empathy for ...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Aug 09, 2007

Jasmine rated it

· review of another edition

While this book is pretty rough reading, at the same time, I found it kind of cool. Not only does the author really lay her life out there for everyone to see, including all her thoughts about killing people, but she ends up a totally successful person. Probably more so than I will ever be. At the end, when Saks is trying to sum up what she wants this book to be and why she wrote it, it gets kind of weird: inspiration to other schizophrenics, even though she admits many people with her disorder ...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Oct 28, 2007

Modern Hermeneut rated it

· review of another edition

An eye-opening memoir. What it what it lacks in stylistic flare, it more than makes up for in bracing sincerity. The author pulls back the curtains on the subjective experience of schizophrenia.

This is an unflinching testament of what it FEELS like -- not just what it LOOKS like from the outside -- to be in the grip of psychosis. It's also an indictment of the draconian methods often used to "treat" psychotic patients.

Even readers who are well-versed in the l...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jan 29, 2008

Melissa Fonseca rated it

· review of another edition

This is a great book. Occasionally, it was difficult to read the author continuously making the same mistakes in her recovery process. Though at the same time it was comforting, because it was a clear representation of the human character. The attempt to abolish the reality of the situation to the point of bringing on your own delusions. Whether that be trying to deny your illness or to think you can change a cheating and abusive boyfriend. I reflected on the mistakes I make time and time again ...more

like 1 like

· see review

Nov 25, 2007

Tracy rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: those interested in a personal account of schizophrenia

Saks presents an articulate and honest portrayal of her life with schizophrenia, from its early days to the present. She doesn't deny the severity of her symptoms, while also acknowledging that the life she's built for herself is atypical -- she is a married, tenured law professor at USC with degrees from Vanderbilt, Oxford, and Yale. The most devastating part for me was Saks' account of her days in the Yale psychiatric centers, acting out and recognizing that the staff didn't particularly care...more

like 1 like

· see review

Dec 19, 2007

Melissa rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone interested in mental health issues

The author, Elyn Saks, is an academic (Yale Law School, Oxford scholar, etc.) who has struggled with schizophrenia all her life. It's very well written and easy to read. As an MD, I was interested about the mental health issues raised in the book and what schizophrenic persons are really experiencing when they talk about "delusions" and "hallucinations". As a Christian, I wondered about the spiritual aspect of schizophrenia. For instance, I noticed that the author was incred...more

like 1 like

· see review

Sep 12, 2007

Jenny rated it

· review of another edition

A fascinating and enlightening memoir about a life lived to its fullest despite suffering from schizophrenia. I learned so much about the inner life of a person with this particular mental illness, and found my heart stirring over and over with compassion for anyone so afflicted. The book is filled with keen metaphors and rich descriptions of psychotic episodes, so intense and so well-described that even though I have never experienced anything similar, I was easily able to imagine such terrifyi...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Jan 16, 2009

Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007-audio-books, 2007-nonfiction

The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, by Elyn R. Saks, produced by Recorded Books, narrated by Alma Cuervo.

This is the unflinching look at a history of schizophrenia, undiagnosed and misdiagnosed for a long time. Elyn Saks, now a tenured professor of law, who has garnered many awards, teaches and writes at University of Southern California. This is her own story. She gives us very detailed glimpses of what happens to her when she has a psychotic break. She talks abo...more

· see review

Jan 11, 2009

Elevate Difference rated it

· review of another edition

We rarely have the opportunity to hear from people diagnosed with schizophrenia. As a result, the disease remains misunderstood and maligned, confused with multiple personality disorder, and the butt of several jokes. In writing The Center Cannot Hold, Elyn Saks has, in part, set out to remedy this, and she has acquitted herself most admirably.

Saks’s life is an interesting one. Raised in Miami, Florida, she exhibited, as she can recall, a few early signs of the disorder in high school ...moreWe rarely have the opportunity to hear from people diagnosed with schizophrenia. As a result, the disease remains misunderstood and maligned, confused with multiple personality disorder, and the butt of several jokes. In writing The Center Cannot Hold, Elyn Saks has, in part, set out to remedy this, and she has acquitted herself most admirably.

Saks’s life is an interesting one. Raised in Miami, Florida, she exhibited, as she can recall, a few early signs of the disorder in high school and in college, but her first serious break arrived while she was getting her Master’s degree at Oxford University. That year, Saks experienced both a stay in a mental hospital and her first relationship with a talk therapist. (The latter is a treatment she strongly advocates, although it is relatively rare to see it used to treat schizophrenia.) The stark detail in which Saks limns her schizophrenic breaks brings the reader immediately into her mind, yet the tone of the writing is so matter-of-fact that Saks’s mind, the mind of a woman both brilliant and deeply mentally ill, does not seem at all unusual. This is her gift as a writer: emotions, mental disorders, therapeutic relationships, and love are all treated as facts, not as things to fight or justify, but simply as the truths of a life. Saks makes schizophrenia real to her readers, as it has always been to her.

The pillars, and the beauty, of Saks’ story are the relationships she has created in her life and shows to her readers: relationships with therapists are portrayed as clearly, and with as much significance, as those with her close friends, her family, and later her husband. Love, Saks demonstrates, is a powerful stabilizing force, even in the face of the inevitable devastation that mental illness brings. In addition, Saks has used her academic work and interests to center herself since her youth, and as readers watch, Saks become what she is today: a professor of legal philosophy tremendously respected in her field, specializing in the legal rights of the mentally ill. We see that her work, the academic niche she has created for herself over time, has come to a graceful symbiosis with her acceptance of her illness. As she advocates, as a passionate writer and thinker, for others like her who have fewer resources, she comes to accept the role that her schizophrenia has played, and will always play, in her life, and also clarifies for herself that it is not the only defining factor.

The Center Cannot Hold is a bold, disturbing, compelling, original book. Elyn Saks is telling a story rarely heard, and she does so with uncommon skill and style.

Review by Gemma Cooper-Novack(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Dec 22, 2008

Chris rated it

Amazing memoir about her lifelong battle with schizophrenia and how she managed to battle, cope and come out on top with a law degree and tenor at USC. Her diagnosis took a long time and she suffered deeply. But she was a highly driven person who would not give in to her madness and wouldn't let it define her or be her. Like many who struggle with thought disorders, she fought taking medicine, in fact she fought her illness and for her life every step of the way. Yet it was her school and he...more

· see review

Nov 19, 2011

Patrick rated it

· review of another edition

Amazon review:
Elyn Saks is a success by any measure: she’s an endowed professor at the prestigious University of Southern California Gould School of Law. She has managed to achieve this in spite of being diagnosed as schizophrenic and given a "grave" prognosis -- and suffering the effects of her illness throughout her life.
Saks was only eight, and living an otherwise idyllic childhood in sunny 1960s Miami, when her first symptoms appeared in the form of obsessions and night t...more

· see review

Aug 22, 2010

Sarah rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography

In reading this book I am amazed at how vivid and true it is. Not many people have endured psychosis, depression, delusions or paranoia yet are able to communicate the experience in a way others can understand. This book is marvelous. The truth behind so many of her simple statements is what really got my attention.

Saks should be applauded for opening up her mind to others in a way that hopefully will work dispell the stigma associated with those who have a "severe mental illn...more

like 1 like

· see review

Oct 24, 2009

Michelle rated it

· review of another edition

Who says someone with schizophrenia can't win a MacArthur (genius) award? Or, for that matter, a Nobel Prize? In this amazing book, Elyn Saks details her own experience of schizophrenia, rife with psychotic breaks and an adversarial relationship with the medications that helped to prevent that as she graduates summa cum laude from Vanderbilt, gets an MA in Ancient Philosophy (highest honors) from Oxford, becomes a tenured professor at USC Law School and Med School while training as a psychoanaly...more

· see review

Aug 09, 2011

James rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: health

I wanted to like this book, the world of the mentally ill is extremely hard for anyone else to fathom.
There are so many people with mental problems, an inside look would be interesting.

But the book is overly long and very repetitive.

About 2/3 of the way through I began to wonder how much of the story is really true.
The author claims the drugs fogged her brain.
When she took an IQ test she scored slightly retarded <while on drugs>.

Yet many d...more

· see review

Nov 14, 2011

Dorothea rated it

· review of another edition

Insofar as I can judge -- knowing very little about schizophrenia, psychology, philosophy, or the particular areas of law that Saks specializes in -- this is an excellent book.

I make that disclaimer because part of the book's excellence is in how much it teaches the reader about these subjects: more of an education than I would have expected from a memoir, but appropriate to Saks' brilliance, knowledge, and life's work as a professor and legal advocate for people with mental illnesse...moreInsofar as I can judge -- knowing very little about schizophrenia, psychology, philosophy, or the particular areas of law that Saks specializes in -- this is an excellent book.

I make that disclaimer because part of the book's excellence is in how much it teaches the reader about these subjects: more of an education than I would have expected from a memoir, but appropriate to Saks' brilliance, knowledge, and life's work as a professor and legal advocate for people with mental illnesses.

Saks' schizophrenia first fully manifested itself when she was at Oxford University studying philosophy. Despite being unable to read, write, or speak effectively when most ill, she managed to finish not only this degree but a law degree at Yale, and to become an accomplished and honored professor at the University of Southern California. This impressive background enabled her to combine scholarly insights on personhood, perception, and agency with her own experiences of all three of these necessary things being taken away, by her illness but sometimes even more by healthcare providers.

Not knowing what this book is like to a person who has schizophrenia, I think it must be a helpful read to anyone who doesn't. I wish I had read it when I was working on a crisis line -- I worried that if I ever took a call from a mentally ill person, I wouldn't know how to react and help them properly. Saks not only explains her personal and theoretical understandings of schizophrenia, but describes many occasions in which she became ill and interacted with other people, who reacted in helpful and unhelpful ways.

I can't find the passage where she says this explicitly, but Saks describes the main emotion she feels when psychotic as fear. She says it's a terrifying thing to experience -- losing control of one's thoughts, becoming incapable of communicating effectively, being bombarded with ideas about danger and violence.

A common experience for Saks (more so in American than British medical care) was for healthcare providers to force her to do things when she was sick: to go to the mental hospital, to take medication, to stay in a room or in bed (to which on a couple of instances she was tied down painfully, for hours at a time). This theft of her agency exacerbated the loss of control she was already experiencing through schizophrenia.

Saks determined that in many situations in which she was restrained, drugged, or otherwise controlled, it was not primarily as treatment for her but as a way for the healthcare practitioners to feel more comfortable in her disturbing presence. (There was never any need to prevent her from harming another person.)

In the situations Saks described in which another person, interacting with her when she was sick, helped instead of harmed her, that person spoke to her with respect, not ordering her to do things or giving her no choice, but requesting and explaining. (E.g. "Please don't run away. I am worried about you and don't think you will be safe on your own. Please come back here so that we can try to help you.") When she said psychotic things, such as "I'm afraid there will be aliens at the reception," helpful people weren't alarmed, but calmly reassured her that this wouldn't happen.

There are a lot of very interesting things in this book -- the evolution of her attitude towards taking medication (first shaped by an abusive drug rehab clinic her parents unnecessarily made her attend in high school), the way she used work as an escape from her illness when possible, her comparisons among different types of treatment for schizophrenia, her legal work on behalf of people with mental illnesses -- but I think that the most important for me was this explanation of how to treat a person who is having a schizophrenic episode with respect and without making things worse for them.(less)

· see review

Oct 31, 2011

Adil rated it

· review of another edition

"Place yourself in the middle of [a] room. Turn on [a] stereo, [a] television, and a 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. Imagine these circumstances existing every day and night of your life. What would you do?" (Page 229, Elyn describing the effects of schizophrenia on her mind)

This book is Elyn Saks' "survival s...more

· see review

Jan 14, 2009

Andrea rated it

certainly a very informative and moving memoire about living with schizophrenia. i enjoyed reading the intimate description of the internal processes associated with psychotic episodes. it truly is unique in that way as few remain as cognitive intact as this author once diagnosed with schizophrenia. yet, i think this is story of a very privilged woman who was fortunate enough to have cognitive, social and financial resources to succeed while plagued by this often debilitating illness. many are n...more

like 1 like

· see review

Nov 17, 2009

Mary rated it

· review of another edition

The most detailed, insightful and informative account I've seen about what it is like to live with schizophrenia, from an extraordinary individual - her observation that there are many people with bipolar disorder who are high achievers, creative, etc. but not really a similar list of people with schizophrenia is true - if her diagnosis is accurate, she really stands out. Also, a very interesting illustration of how psychotherapy can be helpful even with schizophrenia, which most mental health ...more

· see review

Jun 03, 2009

Annie rated it

Shelves: nonfiction, 2009

Just an incredible book. Elyn Saks writes about her experience living with schizophrenia, and it's scary, sad, hopeful and thought-provoking all at once. I was especially horrified by her treatment within the american medical system - parts of this read like an actual horror novel and I had to keep reminding myself it was all real. I realize many of the events described happened in the 70s and 80s, but mental health issues are still so stigmatized today, it's not hard to imagine that these th...more

· see review

Sep 06, 2011

Antigone rated it

· review of another edition

I'm working more and more with clients who have mental disabilities and have been reading memoirs o get a sense of how they work. This book, while at times repetitive in theme (as in the author does follow the same pattern for decades), has been very helpful for me, a non-psych. I certain feel less worried about talking with a client who has had delusions, knowing that those delusions are probably a coping mechanism for someone who is scared or hurt. Scared and hurt I can handle.... So this h...more

· see review

Oct 26, 2011

Frank Spencer rated it

· review of another edition

I listened to this on Audible. It is very good. It is among the better first person accounts that I have read. It drives home the idea that serious psychological problems don't put you in a position of making a decision to do the wrong thing, but instead in a position of not having the power to make any kind of decision. This is when the thinking problems have you in their grip, of course. There is the idea of the shattered personality rather than the split personality. There is a good com...more

· see review

Feb 15, 2011

Gail rated it

· review of another edition

this book is one of a kind and a fascinating read. Elyn Saks is a law professor at USC whose specialty is mental health issues, patients rights as affected by law, etc. This is a topic close to her heart, as she experienced a psychotic breakdown while studying for her masters at Oxford and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She then goes on to get her law degree at Yale and a professorship at USC, all the while struggling with her illness. An amazing woman, she finds help through, suprising...more

· see review

Sep 22, 2010

Letha rated it

· review of another edition

This straight forward re-telling by Elyn of her journey through the first indicators of schizophrenia on up to her life with the illness today was a revelation for me. Although some people reading this book struggle with the fact that the author went off medication so frequently even though it's clear to everyone (even herself, sometimes) that the medication is what is allowing her to progress (as she does, quite successfully) in her life. I however found this period she describes of always want...more

like 1 like

· see review

Nov 05, 2011

Kate rated it

· review of another edition

The author of this book gives us a front-row seat of her journey through her life, through being diagnosed with schizophrenia, to finishing up law school, to being offered a teaching job at USC Law school, and even getting married. I learned from her that most people with schizophrenia are not violent and murderous; that's just what we hear about the most through the media.

This is a fascinating, well-written book. I give it four stars because there's so many verbatim conversations rec...more

· see review

Mar 14, 2009

Anne rated it

· review of another edition

This is the memoir of Elyn Saks, a tenured USC law professor who graduated from Yale Law School, was the valedictorian of her undergraduate class at Vanderbilt and a Marshall Scholar. She also happens to be schizophrenic. Saks's first-hand account of her battle with the disease is absolutely incredible. Beginning in her early adolescence, Saks recounts the constant voices in her head, her hallucinations, and her paranoia that people are out to kill her or that she should kill herself. She ignore...moreThis is the memoir of Elyn Saks, a tenured USC law professor who graduated from Yale Law School, was the valedictorian of her undergraduate class at Vanderbilt and a Marshall Scholar. She also happens to be schizophrenic. Saks's first-hand account of her battle with the disease is absolutely incredible. Beginning in her early adolescence, Saks recounts the constant voices in her head, her hallucinations, and her paranoia that people are out to kill her or that she should kill herself. She ignores her personal hygiene and denies herself food under her belief that she should not nourish a being as evil and undeserving as herself. At nearly six feet tall, she is barely an emaciated 100 pounds. When she admits using marijuana on a couple occasions (in an obvious effort to self-medicate), her well-intentioned, but misguided parents send her to rehab, where she learns that only the weak resort to pills and medication. This brainwashing proves detrimental in her later years, when involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, doctors attempt to medicate Saks with psychotropic drugs and she believes she should be able to overcome her problems by "just being a stronger person." Despite my sympathy for anyone suffering from mental illness, I did find myself increasingly agitated and annoyed by Saks's inability to stick with a treatment program, to stay on her medication, and to maintain appropriate boundaries with her therapist. But, obviously, her inability to do these things is a direct function of her schizophrenia. Saks's story - and her honest portrayal of her own actions demonstrated how difficult it is for people suffering from mental illness to get help. Not just because they are repeatedly misdiagnosed, or because they mask their symptoms in an attempt to appear normal, but because the very behavior that indicates their mental illness is so off-putting that they often alienate themselves from anyone who would ever be in a position to help them. Saks's success in the midst of this debilitating disease is beyond impressive - and that she has found the courage and strength to tell her story will, hopefully, educate people to recognize the symptoms of mental illness - in themselves (to the extent that is ever possible), and in others.
(less)

· see review

May 04, 2010

Sara rated it

· review of another edition

An interesting look at schizophrenia in the 'real world'. I would have liked more detail on her schizophrenic episodes, though. During the story of her life, Dr. Saks was convinced that she never had a mental illness in the first place. She repeatedly tried to taper her antipsychotic medications, always with the same result - a psychotic break. It got a little old after the 50 billionth time. Isn't the definition of insanity (according to Einstein) repeating the same actions and expecting t...more

· see review

Feb 01, 2012

Anja rated it

· review of another edition

I think Elyn Saks has written a courageous and realistic book about what it means to be diagnosed with a serious mental illness. Her passages about being diagnosed with schizophrenia are hard hitting and completely believable. My only criticism of her book is that she glosses over the financial implications of psychiatric treatment. She only acknowledges in the last few pages that she was very lucky to have been born into a family with means to finance treatment. Most patients would not be a...more

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 114 115 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (9)

More editions...

Genres

Non Fiction

59 users

Psychology

56 users

Autobiography > Memoir

49 users

Mental Health > Mental Illness

23 users

Health > Mental Health

23 users

Biography

17 users

Biography > Autobiography

12 users

Medical

6 users

Biography Memoir

6 users

Health

5 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

About Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks, training to be a psychoanalyst, specializes in mental health law, criminal law, and children and the law. Her recent research focused on ethical dimensions of psychiatric research and forced treatment of the mentally ill. She teaches Mental Health Law, Mental Health Law and the Criminal Justice System, and Advanced Family Law: The Rights and Interests of Children. She also teaches at...more

More about Elyn R. Saks...

Books by Elyn R. Saks

Refusing Care: Forced Treatment and the Rights of the Mentally Ill

Jekyll on Trial: Multiple Personality Disorder and Criminal Law

New York and Los Angeles: Politics, Society, and Culture--A Comparative View

Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States

Interpreting Interpretation: The Limits Of Hermeneutic Psychoanalysis

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About The Center Cannot...

2 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Groups That Shelved The Center Cannot...

Shrink Rap (Psychology Bo...

415 members

last activity Feb 05, 2012 09:23pm

shelf: read

I Love My Anythink

149 members

last activity Feb 09, 2012 08:44am

shelf: read

Mental Illness Advocacy (...

8 members

last activity Jan 28, 2012 03:06am

shelf: read

title link	preview: The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
avg rating	preview: The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness Goodreads rating: 4.11 (1466 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2181710.The_Center_Cannot_Hold?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255839739m/2181710.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2181710.The_Center_Cannot_Hold?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks[/url]

The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Readers Also Enjoyed

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website