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  & 14 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: liked

Author: Susanna Kaysen

Tags: psychology

Description: This slim memoir of a college student who suffers a "breakdown" honestly exploresThis slim memoir of a college student who suffers a "breakdown" honestly explores the details of mental illness, specifically "borderline personality" disorders. The account starts in a cold, almost frightening way: the first page is a copy of author Kaysen's case record folder. The reader then is given a fleeting description of the quiet moments leading up to Kaysen's lengthy hospitalization, and then is shown more official documents. This juxtaposition of the clinical with the personal highlights exactly what this memoir aims to express, that the darkness of mental disease has a face, a voice, that can be hidden by labels and diagnoses. ...

2008-02-23

  & 6 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: liked

Authors: Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Dostoevsky Hugh Barnes Richard Pevear Larissa Volokhonsky

Tags: psychology fiction classic philosophy crime literature

Description: A bit hard to read at first, but once you get going, it seems appropriate and you get usedA bit hard to read at first, but once you get going, it seems appropriate and you get used to it. Great concept. Dostovsky really gets into the mind of criminals, though the thought processes and mood swings are sometimes really hard to follow. There are a lot of philosophical arguments, and the conversations are often drawn out. But that's just the style, and I guess you either like it or you don't. I thought overall it was a difficult read, but the struggle between a murderer's mind, and his conscience, and him finally finding a way to live with himself, was definitely worth the read. ...

2006-07-16

  & 2 users

• Current

Type: documentary

Status: to read

Author: Charles Tilly

Tags: psychology reference documentary

2006-07-16