The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays

Esmé Weijun Wang

Feb 2019 · Sold by Graywolf Press

About this ebook

Powerful, affecting essays on mental illness, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and a Whiting Award

An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core. Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esmé Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the “collected schizophrenias” but to those who wish to understand it as well. Opening with the journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, Wang discusses the medical community’s own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing those with mental illness, and then follows an arc that examines the manifestations of schizophrenia in her life. In essays that range from using fashion to present as high-functioning to the depths of a rare form of psychosis, and from the failures of the higher education system and the dangers of institutionalization to the complexity of compounding factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease, Wang’s analytical eye, honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, allows her to balance research with personal narrative. An essay collection of undeniable power, The Collected Schizophrenias dispels misconceptions and provides insight into a condition long misunderstood.

Ratings and reviews

Fascinating. As a person who loves someone with "medication resistant" schizophrenia, these stories have brought about a fuller understanding and deeper empathy. I hope that someday she, too, can be years free of psychosis.

I liked the book a lot. I have schizoaffective disorder as well; reading about it from another person's perspective was cool thank you for sharing with us and hopefully this will enlighten some of the people who want to know what schizoaffective disorder is.

One of the best books I have ever read. As an allied healthcare professional, this book provided me the insight for me to fully understand how schizophrenic patients suffer within.

About the author

Esmé Weijun Wang is the author of The Border of Paradise. She received the Whiting Award in 2018 and was named one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists of 2017. She holds an MFA from the University of Michigan and lives in San Francisco.