Page 10
News
Street Roots •
J
The renowned doctor
and author comes to
Portland to talk
about mental health
and her own
experience with
schizophrenia
BY A M A N D A WALDROUPE
Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at
the University of Southern California’s
ne day, when she was 16, Elyn Saks
Gould School of Law as well as the founding
abruptly got up from her desk,
director of the Saks Institute for Mental
walked out of her classroom and left
Health Law, Policy and Ethics. She also
school. She headed home, but she could not
holds positions at the University of
explain to herself why. As she passed the
California, San Diego, the New Center for
houses in her neighborhood, the houses
Psychoanalysis and the Keck School of
spoke to her - insulting, hostile words that
Medicine.
reverberated in her
Her academic and legal writing focuses on
brain.
the intersection of law and mental health,
It was Saks’ first
but in her memoir, “The Center Cannot
Elyn Saks will be
experience with
Hold: My Journey Through Madness,” she
speaking at the
psychosis and living
recounts her personal struggle living with
Oregon Law &
with schizophrenia.
schizophrenia and how she learned to live
Mental Health
She continued to
the life she wanted to live. A TED talk she
Conference,
experience intense
gave in 2012 about living with the illness has
Friday, June 16 at delusions, and during
been viewed more than 3 million times.
her first semester
the Doubletree
Despite her many academic and scholarly
attending Yale Law
Hotel, 1000 NE
accomplishments, she considers avoiding
School, Saks was
Multnomah St. in
hospitalization for three decades her
hospitalized
and
Portland. More
proudest accomplishment.
restrained to a hospital
information is
Saks will give the keynote speech at the
bed for the first time.
available at olmhc. A few years later, while Oregon Law & Mental Health Conference in
Portland, June 16. The conference is a
org.
at Oxford University,
project of the Mental Health Association of
she experienced a
Portland, an all-volunteer, nonprofit
complete psychotic
organization supporting recovery from
breakdown. Another decade would pass until
mental illness and addiction.
Saks could manage her illness with the
Am anda W aldroupe: In your T E D talk,
proper medication and therapy.
you said that the schizophrenic mind is “not
Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder
split, but shattered. ” What do you mean by
chiefly characterized by the inability to
that?
discern reality from delusions and
hallucinations. Less than one percent of
Elyn Saks: Some people think that
people live with schizophrenia, and it is one
people with schizophrenia have different
of the most misunderstood and stigmatized
personalities, given the word “schizo,”
of mental illnesses.
which means different personalities. They
Saks has dedicated her career to advocate
confuse schizophrenia with Multiple
for people with severe mental illnesses; she
Personality Disorder, which is now called
argues that, with the right medical
Dissociative Identity Disorder. You’re split
resources and support networks, they can
into different parts or different personas.
live with increased independence, dignity
With schizophrenia, you’re confused and
and happiness.
disordered. It’s as if your mind is falling
Saks is now a lawyer and the Orrin B.
apart.
Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and
S T A F F W R IT E R
O
A.W.: How can that sense o f confusion and
disorder manifest itself, day to day?
E.S.: When one is symptomatic, you
would be having typically delusional
thoughts, like ‘I’ve killed people with my
thoughts,’ or hallucinations. Once, I saw a
woman at the foot of my bed. You make
word salads - words that are loosely
associated with one another. When I was at
Yale Law School, I said, “I think someone’s
infiltrated my copies of the cases. We’ve got
to case the joint. I don’t believe in joints,
but they do hold your body together.’”
The best analogy I can give of an active
psychotic episode is a waking nightmare,
with the confusion and terror. When you
have a nightmare, you can sit up in bed and
it goes away. There’s no such luck with a
psychotic episode.
A.W.: Many o f the symptoms you describe,
such as making word salads or having
delusional thoughts, must be so confusing and
scary. What cumulative effect do these
symptoms have on a person living with mental
illness over time?
E.S.: It depends on how compliant you
E.S.: It doesn’t feel.that way. I’ve had the
illness a long time. I’ve talked about it. I’ve
written a memoir. At this point in my life, it
seems pretty easy, something for which I’m
enormously grateful.
A.W.: In another interview you said,
“everyone becomes psychotic in his or her own
way. ” What do you mean by that? And how
does the individualistic nature of these
illnesses impact the ability to provide good
medical care?
E.S.: To diagnose, you have to have
certain kinds of symptoms. They vary.
People have delusions, some people have
hallucinations. Some people become
apathetic and stop working or interacting
with people. There are people who become
catatonic. That doesn’t happen with the
drugs that we have now.
A.W.: You think people with severe mental
illness like schizophrenia can live with more
independence than many already do. So much
o f treatment, though, is focused on things like
medication and hospitalizations. Is it
individual enough?
E.S.: Some people think that I’m unique.
are on medication. Some people stay
psychotic for the rest of their life. My
husband likes to say that psychosis is not an
on-off switch, but a dimmer switch. A lot of
the time, I’m able to say to myself, “Oh
Elyn, that’s just your illness, pay it no
mind.” I might have two or three days going
in and out of psychosis. And at the far end
(of experiencing severe psychosis), I’ll be
crouching in a corner and shaking. There
are different degrees in which it manifests
itself. But for me, for many years, things
have gone in the right direction.
They say there aren’t people like me who
are as high functioning. That’s not true. It’s
just that the stigma is so great that people
(with illness) don’t come forward. I think it’s
a mistake when doctors tell patients with
schizophrenia to lower their expectations. I
was told to get a job as cashier at a store. I
thought to myself, I’m a student. I’m good
at it. I like it. If I’m down for a few days, I
can make (the work) up. What was more
stressful to me is the idea of a constant line
of people asking for change.
A.W.: It must have taken an incredible
amount o f work and dedication to be able to
manage the illness, and talk about it, the way
that you do.
A.W.: How can it help for a doctor, who is
supposed to provide medical care so that you
get better, discourage you from doing
something that you enjoy and are good at?
See SAKS, page 11