Part I – autobiographies, memoirs
After the article on series dealing with mental health, I continue the series of representations of mental illness in art with the form I appreciate most – writing. Books that contain characters or stories we can identify with can make us accept and understand our own feelings, making reading a therapeutic source. By reading, you discover that you are not alone, that there are other people just like you, who have gone through similar experiences and managed to deal with them successfully, and then had the incredible courage to share their stories with millions of readers.
Next, I will recommend a number of books that I liked because they accurately told what it is like to live with a mental illness, thus contributing to raising awareness and understanding of mental illness.
1. I Never Promised You A Rose Garden – Joanne Greenberg/ Hannah Green (English)
“I Never Promised You A Rose Garden”, written by Joanne Greenberg as Hannah Green, is the first book I discovered in my quest to better understand mental illness. I found out about the author in a documentary about people who have recovered from various mental illnesses with the help of treatment, in which she presented her book as a slightly fictionalised biography written at the end of her battle with the illness.
In the book, Joanne tells the story of a 16-year-old girl who retreats from everyday reality into an imaginary world, like a lush but threatening kingdom, where various characters are found sending her daily messages.
The book is very well written and relates in an honest and detailed way the three-year struggle of the teenager with schizophrenia, focusing on her relationship with the psychiatrist who gave her the necessary tools for recovery: “I wrote this novel to give a picture of what it is like to have schizophrenia and what can be achieved with the help of a relationship of trust between a talented therapist and a patient. It is not a history or a case study; I like to think it is a hymn to reality.”
2. Dante’s Cure – Daniel Dorman (English)
Each chapter of this book begins with a quote from the Inferno (part of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri), the author alluding to the state of mind of the main character Catherine and the stage of her recovery.
Catherine, aged 19, suffers from severe schizophrenia and is hospitalised, constantly hearing voices. Her psychiatrist, Dr Daniel Dorman, who is also the author of this book, discovers that the roots of his patient’s psychotic behaviour lie not only in chemical imbalances, but also in family circumstances.
The author reconstructs Catherine’s early life and the onset of her illness with striking detail, covering the entire treatment she receives. Thanks to Dr Dorman’s devotion and perseverance over 6 years, Catherine manages to have a new life, in which instead of being defeated by the illness, she takes control of her own life. Towards the end of the book, we witness Catherine’s success when she passes the exam to become certified as a psychiatric nurse and also becomes an activist for the rights of patients with mental disorders.
Daniel Dorman offers us a story full of courage and hope, an inspiration for each of us who fight for recovery, healing and, of course, the return to a life as normal as possible after the struggle with a mental illness.
3. Picking Up The Broken Pieces – Arielle Bradberry (English)
“Picking Up The Broken Pieces” is a book I discovered during the pandemic, last year, on a mental health channel on Instagram. It was a wonderful opportunity through which I also met the author of the book and managed to talk more with her in a video call. Consequently, I learned from her that she self-published her book and all the money she earns from selling the books will be donated to the psychiatric hospitals in her city.
Arielle writes about her own struggle with depression, anxiety and psychotic episodes. In her case, she ends up having mental health problems due to stress and burnout. The psychotic episodes she experiences are described with accuracy, as are the states she has following medical treatments.
It’s a book I read in one breath and that I simply couldn’t put down, because it is very real and direct. Having gone through similar experiences to the author, I can say that it is very comforting to know that you are not alone when you face mental health problems for the first time, especially in a world where this subject has almost always been hidden. I loved the book enormously and I can say that it is very therapeutic, Arielle managing to transform a series of painful experiences into a healing story, to become an inspiration for the community of people struggling to find meaning in the condition they face, or simply to find methods to manage it.
“Picking Up The Broken Pieces” is a sincere and very intimate account by Arielle. It is like a diary of her memories and experiences, the story being written with the hope that the stigma associated with mental illness will disappear and more and more people will start talking openly about what they truly feel.
4. The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression – Andrew Solomon (English/Romanian)
I first discovered this book in English and then I had the joy of finally seeing it translated into Romanian as “Demonul Amiezii. O Anatomie a Depresiei”.
Unlike the other books, I found this one quite difficult, very complex and slightly philosophical, but also a very good book that dissects depression and mental illness from all sides.
The book was written over the course of 5 years and includes three nervous breakdowns of the author, thus being very informative, honest and heartbreaking. He creates the image of a disease that, although universally experienced, is also deeply individual in its feeling and manifestation.
“The Noonday Demon explores, with vivid images and to the depths, the phenomenon of melancholy and dread. It is a comprehensive testimony in every sense – personal, scientific, historical and political – on clinical depression, its origins, modes of manifestation and necessary treatment. An important work that speaks of suffering, but also, even to a greater extent, of hope.” Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry (see also book 6).
Andrew Solomon also has a very good Ted Talk (“Depression, the secret we share”), where he talks about his experience over the years with the illness.
5. The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery – Barbara K. Lipska, Elaine McArdle (English/Romanian)
“I am a neuroscientist. Throughout my entire career I have studied mental illness, my speciality being schizophrenia. In June 2015, without warning, my own mind took a strange and frightening turn.” Barbara K. Lipska
Barbara Lipska was diagnosed at the beginning of 2015 with metastatic melanoma in the frontal lobe of the brain. As the cancer progressed and Barbara received treatment, she began to show behavioural and cognitive symptoms similar to conditions such as schizophrenia and dementia. Barbara’s family became very alarmed by what was happening, especially because the author was not aware of what she was experiencing. Gradually, she followed the treatment and was helped by her entire family and friends to recover. Once returned to a certain normality, after almost 2 months of experiencing acute symptoms, Barbara began to remember what happened and, with the help of her knowledge of neuroscience, identified the ways in which her brain had changed.
The author explains that the symptoms she had mimic very well those of people suffering from various mental disorders, such as schizophrenia. She emphasises that these conditions are diseases of the brain, not defects of people, and that is precisely why they must be viewed and treated like any other physical diseases.
Most patients with similar brain cancers do not survive to describe the ordeal they go through, but Barbara’s memoirs show that strength and courage, and sometimes also privilege and a stable support network, are essential for recovery.
The book is very informative and inspirational, showing Barbara’s journey from health to “madness” and back.
6. An Unquiet Mind. A Memoir of Moods and Madness – Kay Redfield Jamison (English)
“An Unquiet Mind” is an autobiography of psychiatry professor Kay Redfield Jamison, who has also undertaken numerous researches in the field of bipolar disorder.
The book details the author’s experience with bipolar disorder and how it affected her in various areas of her life, from childhood until the writing of the book. Through what is told, Kay wants to show the effect of this disorder in relationships, both family and romantic, in professional life and in self-knowledge. The author highlights the damaging effects of the illness, but in places also creates space to be grateful for the struggle she leads with this condition and the way it has changed her life.
Bipolar disorder is examined both from the perspective of a therapist and doctor in the field, and that of a patient, the book thus offering a holistic, unique image of the condition.
“An Unquiet Mind” is a deeply transformative memoir, especially for people facing bipolar disorder, who can see it as a real help in managing the illness and recovery.
7. Everything Here Is Beautiful – Mira T. Lee (English)
My last recommendation is a complex story about two sisters of Chinese origin, Miranda and Lucia. The novel exposes in a realistic way the way in which mental disorders can affect not only the sick person, but also everyone around them. Lucia faces schizophrenia, and Miranda is the sister who stands by her and helps her fight the illness.
Although this book brings mental illness to the fore, the entire story touches deeply on themes such as love, family and life as an immigrant. Mira T. Lee’s story is about hope and struggle, especially when everything seems impossible.
Miranda fights to ensure and maintain Lucia’s safety and mental health, trying hard to convince her sister to respect her treatment and take her medication, but Lucia considers that she is not ill and that she does not need medication. I empathised deeply with the situation, having similar experiences with members of my own family. I strongly believe that a person can only get well when they accept their condition and start looking for help, respectively going to the doctor and receiving treatment, which they then administer rigorously.
“This is not a fairy tale. Things don’t work out just because you want them to,” says Mira T. Lee. Mira’s novel is a careful and profound exploration of mental illness, a beautiful story about ordinary lives and about the impact of mental disorders on a family, about their continuous struggle to offer understanding, support and care to a member who suffers.
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Each reading above has been a source of hope, strength, understanding and comfort for me, because I managed to find so many authors caught in turn in a battle in which I thought I was alone. I connected with their writings and felt them like friends who hug you at the end of a long and hard day and promise you that in the end everything will be fine.
Resources about the disorders mentioned in the article:
- our factsheet about bipolar disorder
