The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

Elyn Saks is the author of The Center Cannot Hold, a memoir focused on her journey with mental illness. An academic with expertise in psychology and law, Elyn has numerous publications under her belt. She completed her undergraduate education at Vanderbilt University, going on to earn her MLitt from Oxford as a Marshall scholar and her J.D. from Yale Law School. Elyn holds a tenured position at University of Southern California. Her experiences with schizophrenia and the mental health system led her to train in psychoanalysis through the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (LAPSI).

Elyn grew up in Miami in the 1950s and early 1960s. She belongs to a “partly observant” Jewish family consisting of her parents and two younger brothers. Despite a fairly normal upbringing, Elyn began to display signs of mental illness early in childhood which intensified in young adulthood. As detailed in the book, it took Elyn years of struggle, multiple rounds of hospitalization, and work with multiple therapists to eventually reconcile with the reality of her illness and achieve a healthy balance in her life.

It is the accomplishment of this balance that drives Elyn to write this book in an attempt to dispel stigma and instill hope regarding living with mental illness.