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THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD: MY JOURNEY THROUGH MADNESS. By Elyn R. Saks. Hyperion, New York, 2007, 352 pp.
Elyn Saks's riveting memoir, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey through Madness, haunts with tortured, at times exquisite, melodies. The melody lingering longest is a love song to psychoanalysis. In spite of the metaphor, Saks's writing is not one bit sentimental. She takes us on a slow-at times excruciating, but always truthful-journey to and through madness. I find this memoir awe inspiring. Saks's capacity to transmit the felt experience of her madness while narrating a compelling journey toward sanity left me wondering, as a writer and a psychoanalyst, "How did she do that?"
This ought to be required reading for clinical training programs. There is much to be learned from Saks's capacity to chronicle the psychological treatment of her suffering in its devastating failures and exhilarating successes. You do not have to be a professional to relate to this book. She also has much to offer those interested in memoir writing, living courageously and generously, and learning to put your stubbornness to good use.
We live through four analyses with Saks, each different in tone and character, as were her analysts. In Saks's words, "While medication kept me alive, it had been psychoanalysis that helped me find a life worth living" (p. 31).
The first analysis was with a woman, in England, Kleinian "Mrs. Jones," while Elyn was on a philosophy scholarship at Oxford. The second analysis, with "Dr. White" in New Haven, began when Elyn returned to the United States and pursued her law degree at Yale. The third analysis was with "Dr. Kaplan" in Los Angeles, when Elyn accepted a teaching position at USC Gould School of Law. "Dr. Freed," also in Los Angeles, is Saks's fourth analyst. I was stunned by the beauty of the symphony of Elyn's analyses, each movement orchestrated by her, yet conducted by a different psychoanalyst. While each analysis is complete unto itself, it lives in relation and gathers meaning from its proximity to the others. I was also reminded of my great good luck to have been born in a century where I could be helped as much as Elyn by my own psychoanalysis.
I vacillated between having...