The Power of Story in Shaping Mental Health

There is no shortage of self-help books in the world positing
that the human mind can be explained, that there is a tidy order
to things and a discernible reason why everything happens. These
are books that claim to have answers. Rachel Aviv’s new book,
Strangers to Ourselves, goes in the opposite direction. Through a
series of profiles, she presents people and their behavior that
defy easy explanations and who produce more questions than
answers. Does Ray represent the triumph of medication over talk
therapy or is his story more complex? Is Bapu experiencing
religious ecstasy or schizophrenia? Ultimately, Rachel Aviv shows
how any understanding of a person with a mental disorder
shouldn’t begin and end with a one-word diagnosis because there
are so many stories to be told.


Get your copy of Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the
Stories That Make Us wherever books are sold. Follow Rachel on
Twitter @RachelAviv.


Read Rachel's most recent pieces for The New Yorker by going to:
https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/rachel-aviv


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John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is
now available in
paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepression


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