Books like A Road Back from Schizophrenia by Arnhild Lauveng

Arnhild Lauveng spent ten years alternating between severe episodes of schizophrenia and lengthy hospital stays. In A Road Back from Schizophrenia, she provides an intimate look at her experience of identity loss, the feeling of being controlled by external forces, and interactions with the voices and hallucinations that plagued her. Lauveng details humiliating encounters with medical staff while explaining how patients often appear irrational or violent to outsiders. She illustrates her inner world with surreal imagery, describing a figure she calls "the Captain" and corridors filled with wolves. After her diagnosis, she was told schizophrenia was a lifelong, congenital disorder. Yet she has since ceased medication, gained the title of "former schizophrenic," and forged a career as a clinical psychologist. While critical of some aspects of mental health care, she credits dedicated staff who treated her as a person first for her gradual recovery. The memoir is a powerful resource for patients, families, and professionals.

First publish date: 2005