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 enlarge | Author: Elyn R. Saks
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $34.99
Buy New: $18.37
You Save: $16.62 (47%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B000WOYDOS
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Deeply Moving Memoir of Schizophrenia July 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Reviewed by Deb Gross
on 07/13/2008
Elyn Saks attended Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar, graduated Yale Law School, and is now a chaired professor of law at the University of Southern California. Saks also suffers from schizophrenia. THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD is a deeply moving story of Saks's struggle to live a full life while dealing with the trials of a chronic mental illness.
Saks employs evocative prose throughout her memoir to bring the reader into her state of mind when the disease breaks through her defenses. Her description of the onset of her symptoms at the age of eight resonates: "I think I am dissolving. I feel - my mind feels - like a sand castle with all the sand sliding away in the receding surf."
A recurring theme in THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD is the author's love-hate relationship with the medication that keeps her functional but leaves her less than her "authentic self". She also does an outstanding job of laying out the prejudices those with mental illness face, particularly when seeking treatment for physical ailments.
THE CENTER CAN NOT HOLD is an inspiring story of a woman who fought the demons of her mind and the prejudices of society to achieve great personal and professional success.
4.5 Books
The Center Can't Hold July 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Schizophrenia will impair the mind to where a person cannot process information clearly. Elyn has pretigous degrees from prominent universities. I think she has done this through her cultural backgound while finding therapists that built a rapport to where she can seperate a world of hallucination and delusion to root into a life of success based on reality. Her memoirs where detailed enough to keep the reader in constant struggle for her sanity. She actully demonstates real auditory halluciantion and how they are countered. She does share with the reader the onset and how this can happen to anyone. I think it is the best book about closet material that most people never realized about recovery and potential for someone living with Schizophrenia.
"Center " Takes Us Inside the Mind Having Schizophrenia July 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Center Cannot Hold" by Elyn Saks, is well written by a brilliant woman, herself a mental health comsumer. As a bonus, it is easy to read. I highly recommend it.
My son has Schizophrenia and this book helped me to understand a lot of what he experiences but cannot or will not express to others. I immediately passed the book on to other parents whose child has this illness, to expend their understanding of what he lives with.
No, our loved persons with mental illness are not lazy, nor to they deliberately ignore us nor our requests of them. They are heroes for getting through the day. Their every day struggle with Schizophrenia is unbelievable. The side effects of meds often make waking up a major accomplishment.
The author shares in detail her experiences. She tells of the alternate approach to treatment she experienced in Great Britain, having been offered choices, to medicate or not, to be hospitalized or not. Throughout her life, she has engaged in ongoing psycho therapy.
In this country treatments are forced on the person which in many cases, diminishing his/her personhood, even it we think it is for his own good. She talks us through choices, meds or not, therapy or not.
Elyn Saks is the exception,
It leavs you with a deeper understanding June 20, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
We often associate mental disorders with people who cannot function in life. Getting this insight from a person who is not only very intelligent but able to live a productive life provides the reader with a new outlook and understanding of this disruptive disorder. In addition it is well written and keeps your attention from beginning to end.
 A fascinating look at the schizophrenics among us June 13, 2008
Ms. Saks uses poignant analogies and metaphors to really drive home what it feels like to be mentally ill. She is obviously a tireless advocate for those among us who are unable to represent themselves, or defend themselves in some cases. It was scary, but identifiable in a way. She did come off as a bit self-centered and childish in some instances, like when she would describe how she would run home and hide and cry and have a psychotic break if a professor or colleague didn't do back flips over how great her work was. But overall it was a good read.
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