The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. A white oval with text, on a a background of colourful patterns. The text, from top to bottom, reads:
“Winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize” in small blue capitals
The title “The Collected Schizophrenias” in large black capitals immediately below this
The subtitle “Essays” in small red capitals immediately below this
The name of the author “Esme Weijun Wang” in black capital tags immediately below this
A blurry quote, in blue, is immediately below this.
The background consists of four different swirl patterns: the pattern in the upper-left corner consists of yellow, green and dark blue swirls, the pattern in the upper-right corner consists of blue and red swirls, the pattern in the lower-right corner consists of orange and yellow swirls, the pattern in the lower-left corner consists of dark red and white swirls. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Hallucinations
• Paranoia
• Involuntary Sectioning
• Discussions about illness inheritance

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Summary:

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. In essays that range from using fashion to present as high-functioning to the depths of a rare form of psychosis, and from the failures of the higher education system and the dangers of institutionalisation to the complexity of compounding factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease, Wang’s analytical eye, honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, allows her to balance research with personal narrative. An essay collection of undeniable power, The Collected Schizophrenias dispels misconceptions and provides insight into a condition long misunderstood.

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Notes:

Wang is also the author of the 2016 adult fiction novel “The Border of Paradise”, which centres on the Nowak family and contains discussions of mental health, neuroses, inheritance (of money, of health issues), and is framed by two suicide attempts.

This collection won the 2016 Graywolf Press Non-Fiction Prize.

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Archivist Comments:

From what I’ve seen, this book is very much centred on Wang’s own experience with her diagnosis and health as someone who has schizoaffective disorder. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about her references to make up and fashion in the book, specifically her “name dropping” of brands,

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