An Analysis Of Susan Sheehan's Schizophrenia

In 1978, Susan Sheehan took an interest in Sylvia Frumkin, a schizophrenic who spent most of her life in and out of mental hospitals. For more than two years, Sheehan followed Sylvia around, observing when Sylvia talked to herself, sitting in on sessions with Sylvia’s doctors, and at times, sleeping in the same bed as Sylvia during her stay at the psychiatric centers. Through Sheehan’s intensive report on Sylvia’s life, readers are able to obtain useful information on what it’s like to live with this disorder, how impairing it can be for them, and the symptoms and causes to look out for; likewise, readers can get an inside look of how some mental hospitals are run and how a misdiagnosis can negatively impact someone’s life.

According to Beidel, Bulik, and Stanley (2010), Schizophrenia is defined as a severe psychological disorder characterized by disorganization in thought, perception, and behavior; by this definition, Sylvia showed all of these characterizations throughout the novel. Her first set of symptoms arose at the very beginning of the first chapter when “she imagined that the red mouthwash would somehow be absorbed into her scalp and make her hair red permanently” and when “she suddenly thought she was Lori Lemaris, the mermaid whom Clark Kent had met in college and had fallen in love with” (Sheehan, 1982, p. 3). These delusions were just the start of Sylvia’s psychotic episodes; while staying at Creedmor hospital, Sylvia’s symptoms increased. For almost a month straight, Sylvia showed a number of symptoms: auditory hallucinations, disorganized thoughts, and violent and anti-social behaviors.

After talking to Sylvia for the first time, Dr.Sun, who was her primary doctor at Creedmor, wrote that “the Pt. appears to be ver...

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... aware of the different disorders in the world and what to look out for; I think this book does an incredible job of depicting that. At the same time, this book also gives a look into how psychiatric hospitals are run. Although not all are run the way Creedmor or Rockland was, there are many hospitals that overlook their patients and need stricter regulations for the employees. Similarly, this book also exemplifies how we are still trying to figure out what causes certain disorders, like schizophrenia, and how to treat it. Even if the book does get confusing sometimes and makes you question what exactly is going on, Is there No Place on Earth For Me? By Susan Sheehan is a book that I will recommend to anyone who wants a better understanding of what living with schizophrenia is like and how people with mental difficulties or disorders are treated on a regular basis.