| Edition |
First edition. |
| Physical Description |
276 pages ; 22 cm. |
| Note |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-274). |
| Contents |
Prologue: Rachel "Someone better than me" -- Ray "Am I really this? Am I not this? What am I?" -- Bapu "Is this difficulty I am facing the lesson of total surrender?" -- Naomi "You're not listening to me" -- Laura "He could read my mind, as though I didn't need to explain myself" -- Epilogue: Hava "Stranger to myself." |
| Summary |
"Drawing on deep, original reporting as well as unpublished journals and memoirs, Aviv writes about people who have come up against the limits of psychiatric explanations for who they are. She follows an Indian woman, celebrated as a saint, who lives in healing temples in Kerala; an incarcerated mother vying for her children's forgiveness after recovering from psychosis; a man who devotes his life to seeking revenge upon his psychoanalysts; and an affluent young woman who, after a decade of defining herself through her diagnosis, decides to go off her meds because she doesn't know who she is without them. Animated by a profound sense of empathy, Aviv's exploration is refracted through her own account of living in a hospital ward at the age of six and meeting a fellow patient with whom her life runs parallel--until it no longer does." -- Book jacket. |
| Subject |
Mentally ill -- Biography.
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Psychotherapy patients -- Biography.
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Psychiatric hospital patients -- Biography.
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