Overview
One of the top ten books of the year at The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, Vulture/New York magazine
A best book of the year at Los Angeles Times, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bookforum, The New Yorker, Vogue, Kirkus
The acclaimed, award-winning New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv offers a groundbreaking exploration of mental illness and the mind, and illuminates the startling connections between diagnosis and identity.
Strangers to Ourselves poses fundamental questions about how we understand ourselves in periods of crisis and distress. Drawing on deep, original reporting as well as unpublished journals and memoirs, Rachel Aviv writes about people who have come up against the limits of psychiatric explanations for who they are. She follows an Indian woman celebrated as a saint who lives in healing temples in Kerala; an incarcerated mother vying for her childrenās forgiveness after recovering from psychosis; a man who devotes his life to seeking revenge upon his psychoanalysts; and an affluent young woman who, after a decade of defining herself through her diagnosis, decides to go off her meds because she doesnāt know who she is without them. Animated by a profound sense of empathy, Avivās gripping exploration is refracted through her own account of living in a hospital ward at the age of six and meeting a fellow patient with whom her life runs parallelāuntil it no longer does.
Aviv asks how the stories we tell about mental disorders shape their course in our livesāand our identities, too. Challenging the way we understand and talk about illness, her account is a testament to the porousness and resilience of the mind.
This book title, Strangers to Ourselves (Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us) - 9781250872913, ISBN: 9781250872913, by Rachel Aviv, published by Picador (September 19, 2023) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
Unlike Amazon and other retailers who may also offer Strangers to Ourselves (Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us) - 9781250872913 books on their website, we specialize in large quantities and provide personal service, from trusted, experienced, friendly people in Portland, Oregon. We offer a Price Match Guarantee, and QuickQuote form, to make purchasing quick and easy.
Prefer to work with a human being when you order Strangers to Ourselves (Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us) - 9781250872913 books in bulk? Our Book Specialists are standing by Monday-Friday 8-5 PST, ready to help!