The Center Cannot Hold

Professor of psychiatry Elyn R. Saks writes about her struggle with schizophrenia in this unflinching account of her mental illness. In The Center Cannot Hold, Saks draws readers into a nightmare world of medications, a misguided health care system, and social stigmas.

At eight years old, Saks experienced the first signs of schizophrenia, embodied in part by night terrors. Years later, Saks entered psychiatric care after hearing voices and losing herself in suicidal fantasies. But the worst was yet to come. While attending Yale Law School, she was hospitalized and bound to a metal hospital bed before spending the next five months in a psychiatric ward. But she would not be defeated. With a strength and force of will that most can only imagine, Saks reclaimed her life and went on to achieve great success.