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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
“I suppose I am one of those people that thoroughly understands myself yet am a stranger to myself. I'm not completely convinced I want to be rescued. Maybe it is just because I don't know who I am and what kind of person I am going to be.”
Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv is a compassionate, impactful collection of true stories highlighting different individuals' experience with mental illness, its impact on our identity, how we understand ourselves & how others understand us.
Starting with herself, Aviv takes the reader through six different personal accounts of mental illness. Each story showcases just a piece of the numerous factors that intersect with mental illness and impact one's ability to navigate the world around them and the labels they are assigned. For some a diagnosis makes mental illness easier, sometimes it clouds one's own self understanding. The way we see ourselves is shifted by everything from our diagnosis to systemic racism to medications to who we connect with, and causes each of us to experience mental illness in our own way.
Aviv tells each of these stories with a careful and sensitive touch, while incorporating details of mental health history and school of thought that impacted the subject's specific experience. Her accounts are meticulously researched and are generally a good mix of scholarly and editorial. That being said, there were a few times that I found myself a little lost at the point she was trying to make and how it connected to everything. I definitely feel like an existing knowledge of mental health is helpful going into this.
Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv is a compassionate, impactful collection of true stories highlighting different individuals' experience with mental illness, its impact on our identity, how we understand ourselves & how others understand us.
Starting with herself, Aviv takes the reader through six different personal accounts of mental illness. Each story showcases just a piece of the numerous factors that intersect with mental illness and impact one's ability to navigate the world around them and the labels they are assigned. For some a diagnosis makes mental illness easier, sometimes it clouds one's own self understanding. The way we see ourselves is shifted by everything from our diagnosis to systemic racism to medications to who we connect with, and causes each of us to experience mental illness in our own way.
Aviv tells each of these stories with a careful and sensitive touch, while incorporating details of mental health history and school of thought that impacted the subject's specific experience. Her accounts are meticulously researched and are generally a good mix of scholarly and editorial. That being said, there were a few times that I found myself a little lost at the point she was trying to make and how it connected to everything. I definitely feel like an existing knowledge of mental health is helpful going into this.
This is such a fascinating topic, and I generally find the author's writing really interesting. However, I found a couple of the chapters (Ray and Bapu) extremely boring to read, even though I think they are interesting cases. It's understandable that these are all complex cases and people, but the writing wandered too much for me. I had really high expectations for this book, given its reception last year, and they weren't met.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
It's incredible how the narrative meaning you ascribe to yourself and your health can impact your life. How we understand ourselves, changes ourselves.
the last three stories in this book made me so deeply emotional; they were written so compellingly and in a way that centers personhood through the mental illness. there was a very.. tumultuous section on antidepressant withdrawal. the perspectives were compelling and unique which i appreciate for i have read quite a few psych books!
3.5⭐️ A truly fascinating story. Mental health and how we talk about and address it is so interesting to me so hearing the stories of folks who have struggled with this and their subsequent actions was really powerful.
An interesting book with be rent stories of mental illness and what we make of them.
Some of it was very very heavy. Other parts I breezed through. As someone with depression I connected to parts and not others. Another example of how those ill eases are unique to each person.
Some of it was very very heavy. Other parts I breezed through. As someone with depression I connected to parts and not others. Another example of how those ill eases are unique to each person.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
[ started hardcover finished audio ]
Thought provoking.
Somewhat of a history of how we handle (mishandle?) mental illness: diagnosis/ treatment, treating the patient vs the illness. The framework of this telling is through a few individual stories.
I found myself contemplating the balance of medication vs therapy and how it must be so hard to find that balance. I found myself, yet again, wondering about the importance of accessibility to mental healthcare. I assume we probably have a lot of both under-diagnosed and over-medicated humans and I wouldn’t be surprised if that line ran alongside income.
Thought provoking.
Somewhat of a history of how we handle (mishandle?) mental illness: diagnosis/ treatment, treating the patient vs the illness. The framework of this telling is through a few individual stories.
I found myself contemplating the balance of medication vs therapy and how it must be so hard to find that balance. I found myself, yet again, wondering about the importance of accessibility to mental healthcare. I assume we probably have a lot of both under-diagnosed and over-medicated humans and I wouldn’t be surprised if that line ran alongside income.