The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays
Esmé Weijun Wang
An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core. Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esme Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the "collected schizophrenias" but to those who wish to understand it as well. Opening with the journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, Wang discusses the medical community's own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing those with mental illness, and then follows an arc that examines the manifestations of schizophrenia in her life. more
208 pages, Paperback
First published Graywolf Press
4.14
Rating
17808
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2072
Reviews
Esmé Weijun Wang
11 books 606 followers
Esmé Weijun Wang is an award-winning mental health advocate and speaker, as well as a journalist and essayist. The Border of Paradise is her first novel. Just announced as the winner of the 2016 Graywolf Press Non-Fiction Prize for her book of essays, The Collected Schizophrenias. She lives in San Francisco.Community reviews
Considering that the author had been through the mill herself with many diagnoses for her psychotic states, none quite fitting, until "schizoaffective disorder" and described them in detail, I expected a book that would engender emotion and empathy in me, if not identification. What I got was a cold, dispassionate look at schizophrenia and associated psychoses from many different angles and treatments, including weirdly, astrology, told by an author I couldn't empathise with at all. This is not a criticism of the author, whom I don't know but about her writing about herself which is what the book is mostly about, herself and her experiences. She wrote what a high-achiever academically she was, how intelligent she was and how she had won this award and that prize and was a top employee in this that or the other occupation. She was so beautiful that despite being only 5'4" she had been a model. more
One of the most courageous books I have ever read. In The Collected Schizophrenias, Esmé Weijun Wang writes about her experience with schizoaffective disorder and Lyme disease. Compared to mental illnesses like anxiety and depression, schizophrenia is still so stigmatized, so it is rare and beautiful to read a candid perspective like Wang's. These essays span a wide range of topics relevant to health and illness, ranging from how the mentally ill are institutionalized in a way that removes their agency, to how mass media portrays people with schizophrenia. I most loved how Wang refuses easy answers in these essays. more
This collection of essays is extraordinary. Through exploring her own experiences with schizophrenia, Wang is able to do a great job of looking at society's views of mental illness and the lack of information and understanding around schizophrenia. That combined with her great explanations of what some of her episodes, her family history, the way it impacts the people around her and more. I want to re-read it immediately. Watch my full review here: https://youtu. more
While reading this book, I was in such a terrible reading slump that getting through even a chapter of a book was a struggle. I picked this 200-pager up on a whim, thinking it looked interesting and quick and would help me stay ahead of my reading challenge. Instead, my slump made it arduous and lengthy, made me read every word deliberately. And ultimately that was a gift. This isn't a book that should be rushed through, like I would have done had I been able to. more
The book reads like a memoir. It possesses a mastery of tone that’s deeply satisfying. I think I may have found a substitute—not a replacement. —for Dr. Oliver Sacks, who was a dreamy writer on subjects neurological. more
Admittedly as a psychiatrist, poetry MFA, and patient myself, my standards for illness narratives are high. But I found myself frustrated throughout these essays by Wang metaphorically putting on makeup by buffering her own experience with mental illness from the reader with giant blocks of DSM quotes, cultural references, and religious research. There were moments when she acknowledged that recollecting periods of psychotic experience can be difficult, if not impossible. But I came away from this set of essays feeling like I didn't have a true sense of her personal experience with mental illness. The prose at times was also clumsy and disorganized -- not in a psychotic way, but in a way that the anecdotal and the clinical were not thoughtfully woven together. more
Esmeralda Weijun Wang wants to be a high functioning individual while she contends with her multiple diagnoses. To understand her ability to concentrate long enough, organize her thoughts to allow her to write these essays, and to seek costly medical and alternative type medical care is to come to the conclusion that she is financially very well off. She is not homeless, going hungry, under or unemployed,lacking facilities for hygiene, etc. As part of her high functioning “mask” she applies Tom Ford lipstick, Chanel foundation, and dresses in silk blouses. Though I find her writing to be quite interesting and even engaging I have to wonder at her perseverance and tenacity in spite of her myriad symptoms to write books, go on lecture circuits, stay married to the same person, and maintain friendships. more
too much of this book is the author desperately trying to prove how she is a "good crazy person". she loves to talk about the expensive clothes she wears and how she never leaves the house without lipstick. she is condescending toward other disabled people, shown in how she had to "dumb down" her speech for her peers, but left it unchanged when speaking to doctors. she does not examine the privilege she has in any real way and the entire book felt very surface level. I have to assume the praise it is receiving is because most people who read it do not have psychotic friends or family members. more
I absolutely, perfectly loved this book. The first essay took me a while because Wang gets fairly technical in her introduction to her personality disorder in a way that wasn't easily accessible to me - but this basis is indeed needed. It grounds her book into a reality that helped me to put things into perspective in a way that I found highly effective and helpful. Esmé Weijun Wang has Schizoaffective Disorder and discusses her life and her illness through her own personal lense but always taking the larger picture into account - that she worked in psychology before being diagnosed herself helps ground this memoir. I found her voice incredible - and incredibly needed. more
Early on in The Collected Schizophrenias, Esmé Weijun Wang points out that, as a culture, we seem to focus more on how schizophrenia makes us (i. e. , non-afflicted people) feel than on how people with schizophrenia themselves might feel. I immediately recognized the truth of this sentiment. Isn't it the case that the whole thing freaks us out a bit. more
Reading this excellent collection of essays was something rather stunning. Shocking, personal, informative, and -- let's face it -- scarier than anything else I've read in this, the month of October. Of course, the fact that it is factual and revelatory and so very, very personal should be the highest selling point, but more than that, it shines a light on the spectrum of what we call Schizophrenia, entirely. Let's break it down. I knew from getting my degree in Psychology that people are not schizophrenics but that they have one or more types of effects that color -- or disrupt -- their outlook on life. more
Words that came to my mind when reading this book: Superb. Important. Smart. Interesting. Honest. more
"I'm still trying to figure out what 'okay' is, particularly whether there exists a normal version of myself beneath the disorder. I was taught to say I am a person with schizoaffective disorder. 'Person-first language' suggests there is a person in there somewhere without delusions and the rambling and the catatonia. But what if there isn't. "From 'Yale Will Not Save You' (essay) in THE COLLECTED SCHIZOPHRENIAS by Esmé Weijun Wang / 2019 by @graywolfpressIn 13 essays, Wang shares glimpses of her life as a person with one of the 'collected schizophrenias'. more
There aren't enough first person accounts of mental illness and even fewer books that combine the author's own experience with an analytical approach. Wang has unusual insight into her own illness and uses her sharp intellect to discuss mental illness from the perspective of a researcher. She takes a pragmatic approach - looking at any solutions that might help herself and others. Wang is quite accomplished and has found a way to work around her devastating "schizophrenias. " She does have a remarkable support system including a husband who has stood by her for years. more
[8/10]I appreciated how each essay in this collection was focused on a different aspect of mental health, advocacy, the healthcare system, etc. but all still through the lens of the author's own experience. Considering many of these essays were one-offs for different publications, they fit together quite nicely into a collection that tells a greater story. At times I do wish she had gone a bit deeper with the subject matter and her critical analysis of whatever topic she is discussing, but her writing is always very good and she is very open with her own experiences which I admired; those things made up for the fact that, at times, it felt a bit surface level. My favorite essay was Chimayó, which you can read in full here if you want to get a taste of the book (note: it's one of the last essays in the collection but there really aren't spoilers so it's fine to read this one on its own). more
Loved this. Crucial perspective, expressed wonderfully. more
A well-written, yet aloof look into the schizophrenias. I’m listening to the audiobook right now and cringing through it. Though Esme is obviously an intelligent and eloquent author, I find myself rolling my eyes too frequently at her glaring privilege. I thought I was being harsh, but I’m glad to know after perusing some other reviews that I’m not alone. How often Esme talks about people pitying her for her suffering while she describes her Marc Jacobs perfume is too privileged a window into the illness. more
Stunning. TCS is the most moving account of living with mental illness that I have read to date, and I think that's because it's not trying to convince anyone of anything. Wang wrote essays about her condition and journey, and within these essays, she constantly admits that she is writing about herself and no one else. Her accounts of struggles are hers and not representative of a group of others afflicted with schizoaffective disorder, and even within her writing about chronic Lymes she never seeks to convince the reader. Her pain leaps off the page, and as a reader, I wanted nothing more than for her to find relief in a solid diagnosis and treatment. more
Harrowing. Intense. Illuminating. Powerful. In The Collected Schizofrenias, Esmé tells the story of her life with mental illness and Lyme disease. more
*Goodreads apparently didn't save my review the first time, so here goes it…If it takes me longer than four days to finish a book of this size, it's because I'm just not into it. I wanted to binge on this book, I truly did, but my biggest grudge with TCS is that it is a book predicated more on reports and research than anecdotes. With a disorder as obscure as schizophrenia, along with the myriad of other important mental illnesses mentioned, any reader not privy to these disorders is going to need something tangible to reference. But I must take exception with this, as the bulk of Wang's essays — discerning from the four I read, at least — is about 80 percent citation, 10 percent anecdote, and the rest is that visceral fluff we biblios love to indulge. At times, Wang relied too heavily on scholarly sources to validate the myths surrounding these disorders, which isn't an offense necessarily, but it became a distraction. more
Well, I loved #esmeweijunwang ‘s #thecollectedschizophrenias very much. A series of essays about schizoaffective disorder in the healthcare system, in popular culture, and in the public imagination, the book is also a meditation on Wang’s own diagnosis of, and experiences of the same illness. I love love love that Wang is so actively engaged with her own experiences, and so surrounded by love - I wish this for everyone who shares her diagnosis. I was grateful for Wang’s description of her illness in times of acuity, in particular catatonia, the unknowable fugue. The heartbreakers for me: that fiction can feed into psychosis, books and films. more
A collection of essays about Esme Weijun Wang’s experience living with, among other illnesses, schizoaffective disorder. It’s rare to read about schizophrenia from someone who lives with it, rather than someone who treats or studies these conditions. Her take on the way that patients with schizophrenia are often left out of decisions about their own treatment (which often prioritizes the safety of those around them, rather than the patient herself), is certainly debatable, but is an invaluable perspective. more
This was tough to rate. Some of the essays were deeply informative and emotional. Some were just . there. I wish this would have been more a memoir and not essays. more
Sometimes you read a piece of personal nonfiction and learn a whole bunch of new things. But sometimes you also change the way you look at the world and other people. This is one of those books. My views on mental health have been shaped mostly by Anxiety and Depression and how they've impacted me and many people in my life. I haven't given Schizophrenia a lot of thought for many reasons, and as I read this book it seemed like Wang hit every single one of them. more
At best, the author glides through some mildly interesting current perspectives in mental health and can summarize a few stories nicely. But generally, the text is disjointed, self-aggrandizing, and rushed. She seems to draw almost at random from sources that confirm bias, which I felt led to shutting down questions about the subject rather than opening them further and getting me to think. It felt at times lazy and disorganized. It read as insecure and distrustful and/or condescending to the reader. more
A moving and interesting collection of essays on a subject I personally had never read about and that is cloaked in a bigger societal taboo. Why you might not like it: It's nonfiction, for one. It is also difficult to read and I think it would especially be tricky for people who might find this kind of candid discussion of mental illness triggering. There were moments when her story very much overwhelmed me, so I would also say that being in the right headspace for a more serious, sometime somber set of essays is also essential. Why I loved it: I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author, one of my favorite ways to consume nonfiction. more
Wang’s book is a collection of personal essays, most of which focus to some degree on the author’s experience of schizoaffective disorder. For me, the essays that deal with her psychosis and involuntary hospitalizations were the strongest. Wang is also interested in popular culture, particularly films, that relate to or shed light on her condition. While I was intrigued by her allusion to possible links between autoimmune malfunction and neurologic and psychiatric disease, her experience of chronic Lyme disease (a controversial diagnosis, to be sure), alternative “medical” treatments for that condition, divination (using Tarot cards), and “spiritual” pilgrimage and healing (quackery) were less engaging—even dull—matters to wade through. All in all, this is a mixed bag. more
I should have stopped reading once I realized that the author is besties with Porochista Khakpour whose memoir was one of my worst reads last year. more