A 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 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 Elyn’s life’s eloquent, moving story, from the first time she heard voices speaking to her as a young teenager to her attempted suicide in college through learning to live independently as an adult in an often terrifying world. Saks discusses 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), and the incredibly difficult obstacles she overcame to become a highly respected professional. This beautifully written memoir is destined to become a classic in its genre.