Schizophrenia Themed Memoirs and Collections

Once upon a time, in 2010, I read Swallow The Ocean by Laura Flynn and I cried my eyes out. I forwarded an excerpt to my sister and she cried too. They were tears of acknowledgement, of belonging, of knowing that we were not alone. Priceless. Reading this book changed my life. No doubt. Laura and her sisters grew up around the same time I did and they also had a brilliant, beautiful mother who loved French and whose internal reality became twisted and paranoid when she developed schizophrenia.

Since Swallow the Ocean I’ve been on the look out for other stories that will educate, illuminate, entertain, and give me the words to understand my mom and my family. Here are some of the memoirs and essays that did all of those things for me:

The Memoy Palace by Mira Bartok

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang

The Center Cannot Hold - My Journey Through Madness by Elyn Saks

“My Teenage Obsession with How Things Work” One of many, many perfect personal essays by Heather Sellers. This one in the New York Times.

Fix What You Can: Schizophrenia and a Lawmaker’s Fight for Her Son by Mindy Greiling.

Of course, be on the look out for my memoir, coming in 2025 called You’re Too Young to Understand.