The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship

Lopez broaches the subject of medication to Ayers. The latter recalls his former treatment in Cleveland after leaving Julliard. Lopez asks Ayers to write down “some thoughts on his first awareness that something was wrong, and what it was like to be treated for schizophrenia” (80). Ayers writes a few stream of consciousness pages, one thought following from the previous. He starts by recalling: “As a youngster it was very untogether to be labeled mentally ill because of an underlying cigarette habit” (80). He moves on to crime, drugs, and a recent arrest in LA.

Lopez is in touch with Stella March, a woman with a schizophrenic son. She has helped reform the mental health system and works with “StigmaBusters, an ever-vigilant service of the National Alliance on Mental Illness” (83).

The two meet for coffee, and she offers Lopez encouragement. They discuss Tom Cruise’s recent comments stating that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance, and people should instead rely on vitamins for mental illness. Lopez opens up to March and relates two suicides in his family, his aunt and his uncle.