Search results for "tag:"Author Elyn R Saks""

Book SynopsisA much-praised memoir of living and surviving mental illness as well as a stereotype-shattering look at a tenacious woman whose brain is her best friend and her worst enemy (Time). 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, moving story of Elyn''s life, from the first time that she heard voices speaking to her as a young teenager, to attempted suicides in college, through learning to live on her own as an adult in an often terrifying world. Saks discusses frankly the paranoia, the inability to tell imaginary fears from real ones, the voices in her head telling her to kill herself (and to harm others), as well as the incredibly difficult obstacles she overcame to bec

Read more less

Book SynopsisElyn 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.

Read more less

Book SynopsisExplores the nature of alter personalities, and shows how different conceptualizations bear on criminal responsibilityTrade Review"A provocative study of a controversial topic. . . . Saks' analyses are always clear and incisive, comprehensible even when their premises and reasoning are unfamiliar and their conclusions surprising." * Psychiatric Services *"A thoughtful and thought-provoking exploration of how our criminal justice system should handle an increasingly common mental illness known as multiple personality disorder." * Georgetown Law Journal *"Saks focuses exclusively on multiple personality, a controversial and only recently recognized mental disorder. The philosophical underpinnings that frame the legal questions of culpability, punishment, and competence to stand trial are examined and provide the background for the author's proposals for applicable legal rules. Highly recommended." * Library Journal *

Read more less