Elyn Saks
Associate Dean and Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences
In 2007 I published a book called The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, recounting my decades-long battle with schizophrenia. As I see it, people with mental illness are largely misunderstood, too often feared, and in need of more legal protection. By "coming out" as one of many high-functioning people with mental illness, I hoped to aid understanding. And through my scholarship about law and psychiatry, I hope to show how law helps people with mental illness engage with the world in an equitable and productive manner. My memoir, and other writing, led to a "genius grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which I plan to use to help spread my message to lawmakers and others in the community.
