Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us

Strangers to Ourselves

Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us

2022 • 236 pages

Ratings16

Average rating3.9

15

"Aviv raises fundamental questions about how we understand ourselves in periods of crisis and distress. Drawing on deep, original reporting as well as unpublished journals and memoirs, Aviv writes about people who have come up against the limits of psychiatric explanations for who they are. She follows an Indian woman, celebrated as a saint, who lives in healing temples in Kerala; an incarcerated mother vying for her children's forgiveness after recovering from psychosis; a man who devotes his life to seeking revenge upon his psychoanalysts; and an affluent young woman who, after a decade of defining herself through her diagnosis, decides to go off her meds because she doesn't know who she is without them"--Publisher marketing.


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Five people, five true stories of their experience with mental illness and how it shaped them. It was good. I did almost drop it after the first 50 pages, because some of it was dry and I found myself asking where we were going. But, I'm glad I stuck with it.

April 30, 2024

Fascinating look at mental health and how our stories about ourselves inform the way our brains respond.

January 5, 2024

started off very strong. some of the middle didn't feel as deeply connecting. Worthwhile read. 

September 20, 2024