Name: A tale of mental illness -- from the inside
Uploaded: 2012-06-29T13:36:36Z
Duration: 14 min 35 s
Description: "Is it okay if I totally trash your office?" It's a question Elyn Saks once asked her doctor, and it wasn't a joke. A legal scholar, in 2007 Saks came forward with her own story of schizophrenia, controlled by drugs and therapy but ever-present. In this powerful talk, she asks us to see people with mental illness clearly, honestly and compassionately.

"Is it okay if I totally trash your office?" It's a question Elyn Saks once asked her doctor, and it wasn't a joke. A legal scholar, in 2007 Saks came forward with her own story of schizophrenia, controlled by drugs and therapy but ever-present. In this powerful talk, she asks us to see people with mental illness clearly, honestly and compassionately.

A tale of mental illness -- from the inside

A legal scholar who once spent months in psychiatric hospitals now thrives as a professor, defying a dire prognosis that she would never lead an independent life. She describes the daily realities of schizophrenia, from hallucinations to the trauma of forced restraints, and how support, therapy, and meaningful work made recovery possible. Her journey reveals the power of community over isolation and calls for more compassion, better treatment, and an end to stigma. Humanity, she insists, matters more than any diagnosis.