'By Elyn Saks Memoir The Center Cannot Hold'

The book “The center cannot hold: My Journey Through Madness” written by Elyn Saks is a gripping and eye opening story about her personal battle with the lifetime sentence of Schizophrenia. The book starts out by telling about her childhood in Miami Florida. She lived a normal life, for the most part, with a normal family who loved and supported her. Though even from an early age she knew something was off. She was a quirky, paranoid girl who almost seemed at times to have obsessive-compulsive disorder. She often thought people were outside her house waiting to come in and abduct her.

People with mental health issues have been viewed and treated in a variety of ways within western society throughout time. Historically if an individual displayed behaviours which disrupted their function in society and defied social norms they were viewed as lunatics, insane or even cursed (Cowan, 2008; Elder & Evans & Nizette, 2009). It is from these past issues that many people still have unreasonable thoughts about mental illness; their misconceptions have created unreasonable fears and negative attitudes toward those who experience it. This negativity brings for many the barriers of not only

Cutting out all the fluff and heading straight to the point, this book is about how to mourn when the source of your grief will never go away. No, I’m not talking about ghosts, I’m talking about the mental illness most commonly known as schizophrenia.

Self-pity and pessimistic attitudes remain a topic of discussion with a mentally ill patient, however the more valuable picture revolves around the stigma that the public holds towards those with a mental illness. Unrun Ozer, member of International Committee of National Journal Editors, acknowledges that, “Stigmatization is described as attributing someone in a way that would decrease the person’s reputation because the individual strays away from the general norms of the society” ( 225). Ozer clarifies that a stigma is an unfavorable viewpoint that society has on someone that is perceived as different. Those with a mental illness are susceptible to vulnerability because they are at a small disadvantage than the normal person. Negative connotations, such as adverse viewpoints and perplexing labels, affect the care and treatment process of those suffering because their compliance to treatment decreases. Society is too quick to judge and be ignorant if someone isn’t in perfect form, and Ozer reports, “ It has been reported that individuals with mental illnesses are seen by the society as dangerous, frightening, unstable, irresponsible, unpredictable, and having communication problems” (Ozer 225). Ozer declares that these labels are degrading to an individual with a mental illness, and cause feelings of introversion, decreased self-confidence, worthlessness, shame and despair. If we want happiness to be achievable for all, then criticizing individuals is a step in the wrong

The short documentary Crooked Beauty, directed by Ken Paul Rosenthal, narrates Jacks Ashley McNamara’s experience in a psychiatric ward and how her time in the facility shapes her new appreciation for her mental illness. One controversial issue has been trying to identify the true cause of mental illness. On the one hand, most people may think mental illness is simply a biological disorder that can be cured with a combination of medication and doctors demanding appropriate behavior until it sticks in the patient’s mind. On the other, McNamara contends that mental illness is a misconception with a patient’s oversensitivity, where it is harder for the patient to ignore certain events than “normal” people, and their doctor’s textbook knowledge. In McNamara’s mental institution, the psychiatrists simply trap her in a padded room and prescribe many different pills to suppress her mental illness instead of embracing her differences or showing her how to use those differences to her advantage. In attempt to prevent those who are mentally ill from feeling the same anger and frustration she felt, she demands a change in the line psychiatric treatment when she says:

On days I was unable to pull myself out of bed, I would read Furiously Happy while under my covers, staring at the ceiling and dealing with the many voices that kept clawing and breaking each layer down that built a fortress of self-doubt and underwater volcanos of self-loathing. Many people do not understand these feelings that blossomed inside, and therefore bring their own selective perspectives about mental illness devaluing my human in brain experiences. Explaining to them proved to be harder.

Furthermore, tremendous advances have been made in the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses in the recent decades. Nowadays, someone with a mental illness is treated with respect, just like every other person, because, in fact, everyone is equal. Society’s goals today are to treat and support the mentally ill individuals enough so they can live in

People with mental illness struggle to fit into society. They may feel socially awkward, causing feelings of loneliness or isolation. Likewise, those with mental illness are more likely to be unemployed because of anxiety or fears. Without having a job or way to

Entering the taboo world of mental illness, stigmatized as the crazy and psychotic by decades of

The author speaks of her experiences as a person that suffered from schizophrenia. The statement by Saks that says, “I fell ill with schizophrenia”, proves that she should know what is best for someone that may suffer from a mental illness. It is used to change how the audience feels in the sense that she should know the experiences a mental illness went through and what could better themselves. She speaks of how the forced medication was difficult for her to go through, and how hard she had to fight just to get off of the medication when she says, “I made multiple attempts to get off the medication”. The audience feels a sense of sadness as they feel that she went through a hard time that could have been made much easier if the system used by hospitals was finally updated to be much better than it currently is. It would also bring about a feeling of sympathy and it may even bring about a small sense of empathy towards some. The audience would be feeling sorry for here because of how the difficult time she spent trying to get off the medication could have been much easier if only the system treated the patients they are trying to heal better.

In the biography of Elyn Saks’ The Center Cannot Hold, she describes a lot of her symptoms that lead to her final diagnosis of schizophrenia. These symptoms include, disorganized speech, delusions, hallucinations, grossly disorganized, catatonic behavior and a few of negative symptoms.

In 1961 Thomas Szasz penned a book by the title The Myth of Mental Illness that would go on to cause quite the stir in the world of psychiatry. In the book, Szasz stated his belief that what most psychiatrists would label as mental illnesses are in fact not illnesses at all, but instead what he would go on to call “problems in living.” This article will take a critical approach at Szasz reasons for his belief in these “problems in living” including an objective outline of his argument, a discussion on the validity of the argument and its’ premises, and finally the strongest objections to the argument. Szasz is an important figure in modern psychiatry and his opinions are very divisive but certainly worth discussing.

For this literature review, I decided to read an autobiographical novel called “The Center Cannot Hold” at the suggestion of my individual supervisor at Sharp Mesa Vista, who said it was the best first-hand account of schizophrenia that she had ever read. The novel tells the story of Elyn Saks’ lifelong struggle with schizophrenia.

This is actually what I thought we were going talk about more in our discussion. As many of the disorders we have discussed in class many of them have no treatment. It was amazing that Susannah got better. But I keep thinking about that horrible 6 months for her and her family. At times they were judged by others. But once they got Dr. Najjar involved they knew the problem and had a treatment which was great. But I keep correlating this to schizophrenia which some of her signs and symptoms correlated too. If she had schizophrenia she would not have seen the best doctors and not be taken care of by the best nurses. Steven may have left if he knew this. There is treatment but the condition never goes away. She probably would have never worked for the post again. So the meaning or the hidden message in this book to me is that stigma and lack of hope that people must feel with a mental disorder and it’s unknowns is horrible. Because a mental disorder may last a lot longer than 6 months it might last a

Navigation of life is not void of challenges; however, in the presence of a mental disorder, these normal life challenges are exacerbated. Because of this continued mental health services are of fundamental importance for the suffer given they can ease the burden of the disorder. Unfortunately, numerous barriers interrupt the path to care and treatment, which many suffers cannot navigate, thereby severing their link to these vital services. Barriers are either attitudinal (stigma and adverse perception about mental health efficiency) or structural (e.g. location, distance, accessibility, inadequate health coverage) both of which appear to have an impact in this particular case (Eaton, 2012). Ms. Jones unwillingness to accept her diagnosis with paranoid schizophrenia is indicative of the power of stigmas, as well as their ability to obstruct treatment.