The Centre Cannot Hold: A Memoir of My Schizophrenia
Manufacturer: Virago Press (UK) Written By: Elyn R. Saks
Click on the Buy From Amazon.com link to know Amazon.com's best price & availability.
Binding: Hardcover EAN: 9781844081622 ISBN: 1844081621 Label: Virago Press (UK) Manufacturer: Virago Press (UK) Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 313 Publication Date: 2007-01 Publisher: Virago Press (UK) Studio: Virago Press (UK)
Editorial Reviews for The Centre Cannot Hold: A Memoir of My Schizophrenia
Elyn Saks is Professor of Law and Psychiatry at University of Southern California Law School. She's the author of several books. Happily married. And - a schizophrenic. Saks lifts the veil on schizophrenia with her startling and honest account of how she learned to live with this debilitating disease. With a coolly clear, measured tone she talks about her condition, the stigma attached and the deadening effects of medication. Her controlled narrative is disrupted by interjections from the part of her mind she has learned to suppress. Delusions, hallucinations and threatening voices cut into her reality and Saks, in a remarkably vivid way, enables us to hear and see them too. This is a powerful book that is as informative as it is moving. There are parallels with Jane Lapotaire's Time Out of Mind and with Girl, Interrupted.
Consumer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: The Center Cannot Hold;: My Journey Through Madness Comment: This is an amazing account of an intelligent woman who will not let one of the most devastating mental illnesses, schizophrenia, beat her. Her courage and honesty are amazing. What she has achieved is beyond what "normal" people can imagine. She has done so much for those with mental illness and their families by her brave account, not just in showing how it can be managed but the failures of understanding in the medical community. Customer Rating: Summary: the center CAN hold Comment: I struggled through this book. Surely Elyn would quit having so many psychotic symptoms; surely her meds would stop her symptoms; certainly she would realize that seeing an analyst was not helping with her symptoms. About two-thirds of the way through, I put it down thinking I would return it to its owner.
However, a month later when I read some positive book reviews, I picked it back up hoping to read that she was free of psychotic symptoms. Instead, she continues to live inside her illness and hold onto her symptoms.
As a person with a psychotic disorder, I know that recovery from these painful symptoms is possible. And it isn't just the meds that help one recover. The fundamental change in how I perceived and reacted to my world came from changing my thinking.
Recovery is personal to everyone and obviously Elyn's idea of recovery is to continue living with her horrible symptoms and maintain the capacity to live a productive life. For me, I choose to find alternative ways to heal that include positive expectations for myself and the world around me.
Elyn, the center CAN hold; the center DOES hold. It's all we have.
If you are a family member of a person with a psychotic disorder and you want your loved one to suffer the rest of their life, then send them to a psychoanalyst. If you truly want happiness, freedom, independence and all the wonderful things life has to offer for your family member, then read Jill Bolte Taylor's, My Stroke of Insight. "Peace is just a thought away."
Customer Rating: Summary: The Center Finally Does Hold Comment: 'The Center Cannot Hold' presents an extremely admirable story. Professor Saks not only survives but thrives despite having schizophrenia. 'The Center Cannot Hold' shows Professor Saks to have an almost superhuman will power. Despite set back after set back Professor Saks returns to the ring time after time and finally triumphs. I think the real strength of this book is that it shows people with schizophrenia frequently to be decent caring people with a profound sense of justice. In terms of psychoanalysis, vis-a-vis Dr. Saks the proof is in the pudding, but psychoanalyis isn't really such a terrifc option for the vast majority of people with schizophrenia. Too, a similiar career path to the career path of Dr. Saks is largely out of the question for most people with schizophrenia. I think the main strenth of the book is to show than people with schizophrenia can be very very ill but at the same time fully human. Customer Rating: Summary: Something is missing here. Comment: What everyone who reviews this book and Ms. Saks herself untterly fails to realize is the devastating affect that her two years with "Operation ReEntry" had on her emotional and psychological development. Spawned from Synanon, a destructive and cruel cult that borrowed its methods from Korean war era mind-control and brainwashing techniques, it had her brainwashed into believing that she needed to have her spirit broken down and "rebuilt" although she never makes clear in what way it was beneficial for her to have spent two years being yelled at, made to scrub the stairs with a toothbrush, cut off from normal teenage activities, separated from her peers and turned over to a group of controlling drug addicts. Nor how her spirit was supposedly rebuilt nor to whose specifications. Lots of people have done far more drugs that Ms. Saks did and are fine. But when your parents abandon you to a cult that turns sanity, reality and common sense on its head then makes you believe you are crazy if you challange it, truth gets twisted into such a Gordian knot that sometimes insanity is the only escape. The lady seriously needs to reexamine that time in her life to understand the damage that was done by her post-traumatic reaction to her semi-incarceration. I'm not saying that she would not have schizophrenia anyway. But the massively profitable "behavioral" programs that Synanon spawned have been the cause of much post-traumatic stress and suicide, not to mention the kids who died in the "programs" as a result of abuse and neglect. Although I admire her and her accomplishments there is a big piece of the puzzle missing here. I hope Ms. Saks will do a rigorous re-examination of this time in her life and write about it. Customer Rating: Summary: Exceptional read!! Comment: One of the best of all the books I have read over the 15 years my son has been struggling to find his place in a society that refuses to care for his needs. It gave me tremendous insight into his struggles, and I am now reading Sak's third book, "Refusing Care." I have suggested "Center Cannot Hold" to the local chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, so that families can borrow the book, read it, and gain their own "insight" into the details our loved ones are unable to tell us about. It certainly will help me to change the way I interact with my son, as I learn to let go of my fears for him and encourage him to make his own choices in dealing with such a devastating brain disorder.
More Information on The Centre Cannot Hold: A Memoir of My Schizophrenia
BBC - Ouch! - Close Up - 13 Questions: Elyn Saks Visiting the UK to promote the release of her book, 'The Centre Cannot Hold: A Memoir Of My Schizophrenia', professor and author Elyn Saks is in the hotseat for the third edition ...
The MindFields College Blog — The centre cannot hold - a memoir of my schizophrenia by Elyn Saks. The winner will be announced on 15th May at the Mind Awards ceromony to be held at Kingsway Hall Hotel, London ...
Anthro 234: Disability and Culture Saks, Elyn R. 2007 The centre cannot hold : a memoir of my schizophrenia. London: Virago. Schiller, Lori, and Amanda Bennett. 1994 The quiet room : a journey out of the torment of ...
RTÉ.ie Radio1: Today with Pat Kenny The Centre Cannot Hold, A Memoir of my Schizophrenia Author: Elyn R Saks Publisher: Virago Publication 20th September 2007-09-21 Price: €14.99
Mind Awards 2008: Book Of The Year Shortlist Announced, UK The centre cannot hold: a memoir of my schizophrenia by Elyn R Saks (Virago) Success and academic acclaim aren't always the first things that come to mind when dealing with enduring ...
Sun-Herald, 13 October 2007 My thanks to Robyn Doreian for an outstanding review of ‘The Centre Cannot Hold; A Memoir of My Schizophrenia’ by Elyn Saks (Books, Sun-Herald 13.1.08).
Resource Base Elyn Saks (2007). The Centre Cannot Hold: A Memoir of My Schizophrenia. Memoir by this professor of Law and Psychiatry at University of Southern California Law School, who has also ...
Letters to the editor archive My thanks to Robyn Doreian for an outstanding review of ‘The Centre Cannot Hold; A Memoir of My Schizophrenia’ by Elyn Saks (Books, Sun-Herald 13.1.08).
