Summary Of The Book 'The Center Cannot Hold'

The Center Cannot Hold Review
Shannon Sumner
Couns 650
11/2/15

The book The Center Cannot Hold by Ellen Sachs was a revelation. I have read much on the symptomatology of schizophrenia, and understand it from a clinician’s observational standpoint. I currently have several clients who have lived many years with this diagnosis. Ellen Sacks gives us an excellent first person viewpoint of living with this disease. And she also gives us the very best outcome and scenario if this diagnosis was to be had by anyone. This book is really about what it's like for someone given the very best of resources and circumstances to cope with one of the cruelest tricks of the mind, schizophrenia. Ellen herself says "My mind has been both my best friend and my worst enemy"(Saks 2013), and in her case, so very true.
Walking home from school turned into a harrowing experience in which she believed all the houses in her neighborhood were transmitting messages into her brain. This frightened her, triggering anxiety and continued symptoms. Because of her developmental stage and the fairly mild delusions and behaviors - someone was outside her window trying to get in, the need to line things up in order - her positive prodromal symptoms were dismissed as a quirks. But then, many of the emerging signs are difficult, often explained in other developmental aspects and behaviors. The prodromal stage is when symptoms first appear but often are not recognized, most often after puberty (Elyn’s was early onset) and is usually followed by a period of increasing symptoms along with a decline in overall functioning. And for Elyn, distressed and aware what was happening to her was not normal, she also instinctively knew she should keep her symptoms a