Each of these vignettes forms part of an instructive case study in Nathan Filer’s intelligent, absorbing narrative exploration of schizophrenia, The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia. But schizophrenia (the “heartland” of psychiatry, as it used to be known, hence the title) doesn’t feature here. Instead, it is referred to as so-called schizophrenia throughout Filer’s 250-page attempt to get to grips with the history of the diagnosis, and what exactly it means. He wants to discover and articulate how a mental illness leaves its print on the people who live with it or in its proximation. The “overrepresentation of black people in the mental health system” is, he rightly tells us, a euphemism for “institutional racism”.

Source: The Guardian June 02, 2019 06:00 UTC