A review by marywahlmeierbracciano
The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang

challenging hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

I loved Esmé Weijun Wang’s book of essays, The Collected Schizophrenias.  Well-researched yet compact, this book follows Wang’s mental health journey through misdiagnoses, forced hospitalizations, and hallucinations to eventually land upon a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type.  Each chapter follows a few different storylines, a nonlinear examination of Wang’s experiences paired with eloquent cultural commentary and sometimes a bit of data regurgitation to provide context.  This book humanizes the schizophrenias in ways that society, and even mental health practitioners, have repeatedly denied.  Also including the author’s experiences with delayed-onset PTSD and late stage Lyme disease (which is also bafflingly controversial in the medical community)—as well as her loving long-term relationship with her husband—The Collected Schizophrenias is an ultimately hopeful book which grants autonomy and power to those who know its namesake.
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