Some courses on mental illness are subject to the shortcoming that they largely divorce the extensive database of knowledge of psychiatric problems from “real people” struggling with these challenges in the “real world.” In this course, students will learn about mental illness through the lens of a variety of prominent memoirs written by individuals coping with a wide range of psychiatric problems. In embracing this “person-centered” approach, the course affords students a unique perspective on the lived experience of individuals with mental illness. Student reflection on their reading, accomplished via writing and in-class discussion, is a critical element of the course. This is a reading-intensive course.
