---
product_id: 1428781
title: "The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness"
price: "Rp490857"
currency: IDR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.id/products/1428781-the-center-cannot-hold-my-journey-through-madness
store_origin: ID
region: Indonesia
---

# The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

**Price:** Rp490857
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
- **How much does it cost?** Rp490857 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.id](https://www.desertcart.id/products/1428781-the-center-cannot-hold-my-journey-through-madness)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

A much-praised memoir of living and surviving mental illness as well as "a stereotype-shattering look at a tenacious woman whose brain is her best friend and her worst enemy" ( Time ). Elyn R. Saks is an esteemed professor, lawyer, and psychiatrist and is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry, and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Law School, yet she has suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life, and still has ongoing major episodes of the illness. The Center Cannot Hold is the eloquent, moving story of Elyn's life, from the first time that she heard voices speaking to her as a young teenager, to attempted suicides in college, through learning to live on her own as an adult in an often terrifying world. Saks discusses frankly the paranoia, the inability to tell imaginary fears from real ones, the voices in her head telling her to kill herself (and to harm others), as well as the incredibly difficult obstacles she overcame to become a highly respected professional. This beautifully written memoir is destined to become a classic in its genre.

Review: Excellent book well worth your time and money - Wow. What can I say? This book is such an excellent read that I recommend it to everyone and anyone who is interested in reading an autobiography about a Jewish woman who overcame a livelong battle with a mental illness only to emerge victorious and highly successful, helping countless people in the process. I recently bought this book after researching similar ones on desertcart about schizophrenia. I wanted to read about the mental illness and share it with someone who also wanted to read and discuss the same book together. I was given the task of choosing such a book. After reading many book reviews, this one had the most reviews, most positive reviews, and when I read the synopsis, I decided it was it. This was the book. This book was so hard to put down. I read it from cover to cover in a matter of a few days. It would have taken me a shorter time, had I had the time to sit down and read it all in one go. It was a real page turner, really well written, highly entertaining and informative, and beautifully crafted. The real events in her life dealing with schizophrenia are sad and terrifying, but it was something she suffered through and remembered clearly enough to retell it in highly descriptive detail, drawing the reader in with every battle. I especially loved the ending, with her recent academic accomplishments and accolades and of course, her wedding to her husband. The Center Cannot Hold was a comforting and thrilling read for me. Although I could not relate to much of her life and experiences, the book was moving and touching. I highly recommend Elyn Saks's book, The Center Cannot Hold to my parents, friends, family, and husband as well as to everyone in the general public. It is an excellent book that is well worth your time and money.
Review: A review, but a suggestion too... - Well, I think this book is maybe the best book that I read in my whole life. Besides tell us the story of her life, Elyn Saks tell us what a person suffering from schizophrenia thinks and feels during her crisis. Off course that each person is different, but to "healthy" people, know about this is a invaluable knowledge. I was very surprised when she describes that she was shamed because while she was tied during a crisis, in the hospital, the door was open and all people that passed in front that door can see her. Usually we think that mental patients do not completely realize the reactions of the others, so, probably a lot of us don't bother in completely hide our discomfort when in presence of their crisis, probably hurting them still more. This book can teach all of us to be more sensible and solidary to mental ill people, but it is a distressful reading, because we suffer together with the author, chapter after chapter. I did a bad choice to decide reading all book in the bus, because in the last chapter I had to use a lot of self control to avoid to cry. One reviewer seem a little uncomfortable because the author repeatedly cites her intellectual merits, but I think that is absolutely necessary, because the healthy people usually think of mentally ill people like mentally lame, and probably it is not easy to break this misconception, so, her emphasis is welcome and is not a sign of poor writing, but of good writing abilities. She knows what is important to reiterate to her message can be understood. You don't break prejudices only explaining fact after fact, prejudices are hypnotic standards of thought, so you need treat them according and hit the same key again and again and again... Well, I am not that kind of reviewer that put a summary of each chapter, if you want this, try the "Look inside" feature. I think that is much more useful to tell what a person think and feels about the book, because these human reactions are what we share in commom and says more about the books than a summary. Now, I want to say some few things about this sickness, and if you are a materialistic person or a Christian person ( the type of person that think that the bible has all answers), stop to read here, to avoid waste your time. Elyn Saks describes some situations about her "delusions" that seems clearly psychic attacks and this hypothesis should be checked too, together with the schizophrenia hypothesis. In our materialistic society any time when a person see, hears or feels anything that is not physically present, this is interpreted like madness. It is so with astral projection, with see/hear spirits, auras, elementals, or pre/retrocognition. The materialistic point of view is very ignorant about this matters, so, its conclusions has completely no value in this subject. The fact the medicines were able to control or stop the delusions only shows the the medicines can block the perceptions of the person. Off course, a good part of the psychic attack is nothing more than spiritual bullying, so, if you can prevent the victim of perceive the bullying, you can block the negatives effects of the psychic attack, WHILE YOU TAKE YOUR MEDICINES. However, like the most in the medicine, you are only treating the symptoms, not the cause, that MAY be spiritual. A lot of things that Elyn Saks saw or thought during her crisis ( and a lot of mental diseases, but not all of them) , mainly her thoughts about she worth nothing, are the usual technique in psychic attacks, and if she had knew some reliable psychic ( the reliable never will charge any money for this) maybe she can find another answers to her situation, and another solutions. I know that this maybe sounds a little strange in the American culture, but if you can tolerates learn about spiritualism, you can discover that there are more facts than beliefs about this situations. However, IF situations the Elyn tells us about were, in fact, psychic attack, not schizophrenia, even so they are very hard to solve, because there are strong reasons to this kind of problem, usually a person never faces hard problems without strong reasons to them, and in this kind of situation, I mean, psychic attack, usually the offenders were, usually, victims in past incarnations, and the actual victim is, usually (but not always), the tormentor. Silt the actual victim with medicines can help her, but will not solve the problem, IF THE PROBLEMS WERE NOT MENTAL. Anyway, only a psychic can say if there were any real entities attacking the victim or if all was only delusion, a materialistic doctor is not able to conclude nothing about this. In a ideal world, the psychiatrist should be a psychic too. To those people that has any curiosity about the several problems and nuances of psychic attacks and methods of solutions that SOME GROUPS of spiritualists uses, this book has a lot of study cases: Spirit and Matter: New Horizons for Medicine I think that people suffering with mental disorders lose a lot to confine themselves to materialistic point of view, but anyone has the right to only accept the solutions that are according with their beliefs, even if this only treat the symptoms, not the cause.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #16,022 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2 in Schizophrenia (Books) #42 in Medical Psychology Pathologies #45 in Popular Psychology Pathologies |
| Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 4,447 Reviews |

## Images

![The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/710fm41ORjL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent book well worth your time and money
*by J***Z on January 17, 2026*

Wow. What can I say? This book is such an excellent read that I recommend it to everyone and anyone who is interested in reading an autobiography about a Jewish woman who overcame a livelong battle with a mental illness only to emerge victorious and highly successful, helping countless people in the process. I recently bought this book after researching similar ones on Amazon about schizophrenia. I wanted to read about the mental illness and share it with someone who also wanted to read and discuss the same book together. I was given the task of choosing such a book. After reading many book reviews, this one had the most reviews, most positive reviews, and when I read the synopsis, I decided it was it. This was the book. This book was so hard to put down. I read it from cover to cover in a matter of a few days. It would have taken me a shorter time, had I had the time to sit down and read it all in one go. It was a real page turner, really well written, highly entertaining and informative, and beautifully crafted. The real events in her life dealing with schizophrenia are sad and terrifying, but it was something she suffered through and remembered clearly enough to retell it in highly descriptive detail, drawing the reader in with every battle. I especially loved the ending, with her recent academic accomplishments and accolades and of course, her wedding to her husband. The Center Cannot Hold was a comforting and thrilling read for me. Although I could not relate to much of her life and experiences, the book was moving and touching. I highly recommend Elyn Saks's book, The Center Cannot Hold to my parents, friends, family, and husband as well as to everyone in the general public. It is an excellent book that is well worth your time and money.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A review, but a suggestion too...
*by S***A on January 30, 2012*

Well, I think this book is maybe the best book that I read in my whole life. Besides tell us the story of her life, Elyn Saks tell us what a person suffering from schizophrenia thinks and feels during her crisis. Off course that each person is different, but to "healthy" people, know about this is a invaluable knowledge. I was very surprised when she describes that she was shamed because while she was tied during a crisis, in the hospital, the door was open and all people that passed in front that door can see her. Usually we think that mental patients do not completely realize the reactions of the others, so, probably a lot of us don't bother in completely hide our discomfort when in presence of their crisis, probably hurting them still more. This book can teach all of us to be more sensible and solidary to mental ill people, but it is a distressful reading, because we suffer together with the author, chapter after chapter. I did a bad choice to decide reading all book in the bus, because in the last chapter I had to use a lot of self control to avoid to cry. One reviewer seem a little uncomfortable because the author repeatedly cites her intellectual merits, but I think that is absolutely necessary, because the healthy people usually think of mentally ill people like mentally lame, and probably it is not easy to break this misconception, so, her emphasis is welcome and is not a sign of poor writing, but of good writing abilities. She knows what is important to reiterate to her message can be understood. You don't break prejudices only explaining fact after fact, prejudices are hypnotic standards of thought, so you need treat them according and hit the same key again and again and again... Well, I am not that kind of reviewer that put a summary of each chapter, if you want this, try the "Look inside" feature. I think that is much more useful to tell what a person think and feels about the book, because these human reactions are what we share in commom and says more about the books than a summary. Now, I want to say some few things about this sickness, and if you are a materialistic person or a Christian person ( the type of person that think that the bible has all answers), stop to read here, to avoid waste your time. Elyn Saks describes some situations about her "delusions" that seems clearly psychic attacks and this hypothesis should be checked too, together with the schizophrenia hypothesis. In our materialistic society any time when a person see, hears or feels anything that is not physically present, this is interpreted like madness. It is so with astral projection, with see/hear spirits, auras, elementals, or pre/retrocognition. The materialistic point of view is very ignorant about this matters, so, its conclusions has completely no value in this subject. The fact the medicines were able to control or stop the delusions only shows the the medicines can block the perceptions of the person. Off course, a good part of the psychic attack is nothing more than spiritual bullying, so, if you can prevent the victim of perceive the bullying, you can block the negatives effects of the psychic attack, WHILE YOU TAKE YOUR MEDICINES. However, like the most in the medicine, you are only treating the symptoms, not the cause, that MAY be spiritual. A lot of things that Elyn Saks saw or thought during her crisis ( and a lot of mental diseases, but not all of them) , mainly her thoughts about she worth nothing, are the usual technique in psychic attacks, and if she had knew some reliable psychic ( the reliable never will charge any money for this) maybe she can find another answers to her situation, and another solutions. I know that this maybe sounds a little strange in the American culture, but if you can tolerates learn about spiritualism, you can discover that there are more facts than beliefs about this situations. However, IF situations the Elyn tells us about were, in fact, psychic attack, not schizophrenia, even so they are very hard to solve, because there are strong reasons to this kind of problem, usually a person never faces hard problems without strong reasons to them, and in this kind of situation, I mean, psychic attack, usually the offenders were, usually, victims in past incarnations, and the actual victim is, usually (but not always), the tormentor. Silt the actual victim with medicines can help her, but will not solve the problem, IF THE PROBLEMS WERE NOT MENTAL. Anyway, only a psychic can say if there were any real entities attacking the victim or if all was only delusion, a materialistic doctor is not able to conclude nothing about this. In a ideal world, the psychiatrist should be a psychic too. To those people that has any curiosity about the several problems and nuances of psychic attacks and methods of solutions that SOME GROUPS of spiritualists uses, this book has a lot of study cases: Spirit and Matter: New Horizons for Medicine I think that people suffering with mental disorders lose a lot to confine themselves to materialistic point of view, but anyone has the right to only accept the solutions that are according with their beliefs, even if this only treat the symptoms, not the cause.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Things Fall Apart...but you can rebuild!
*by C***L on May 21, 2010*

I found Ms. Saks book thoroughly engaging. I couldn't put it down & finished it in 2 days. I thought the writing was very good. Her descriptions of her psychosis so that those of us who've never experienced schizophrenic delusions can understand what they're like were superbly written. She writes in an informative but conversational tone so that it makes you feel like you're her friend & she's confiding in you. The book read quick and was gripping along the way, going from normal moments of life at an Ivy League school to stark moments of disoriented psychosis. The book was often repetitive. The author's constant and consistently present idea that staying on medication (even though it kept her sane) indicated that she was a failure makes the book a bit monotonous. Elyn has some stress in life, becomes psychotic, gets medication that helps, then refuses to take it because that would make her a failure. After awhile you just want to jump through the pages and scream "Stay on your meds!" But I guess that's the truth of how things happened so that's what she wrote. It just gets a bit frustrating. Also, I found the author to be a tad self-congratulatory for my taste, though I understand how proud she must have been to be accomplishing what she was, despite having such a debilitating mental illness. Some questions, for me at least, were left unanswered, mostly regarding her delusions and how she related to them from the inside. She speaks of them in stunning cogent detail but mostly like she is witnessing them from outside herself. Then again, maybe she was. I have noticed many people's negative reviews surround Elyn's privileged status. Mainly, she was able to get education and treatment that other schizophrenics don't have. True, but hardly a reason to review the book negatively. Should she not have written it because she wasn't poor? Plus, several times in the book she cites that she stayed in England and got treated there (for a time) rather than return to the US because of how less expensive it was to get treatment in the UK. I see this same kind of classist vitriol (of the reviewers) in another book I enjoy in this genre Prozac Nation. For some reason people get angry when people with mental illness are lucky enough to have some money which can help them succeed. Perhaps they have empathy towards those in the same predicament but who are simply (and unfortunately) less fortunate. But that's not Elyn's fault. This book is about her life with her disease. It's not a treatise on schizophrenia in general nor is it a composite sketch of everyone with the disease. It's the truth as she lived it. And a bleak and powerful one at that.

## Frequently Bought Together

- Hachette The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
- Surviving Schizophrenia, 7th Edition: A Family Manual

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.id/products/1428781-the-center-cannot-hold-my-journey-through-madness](https://www.desertcart.id/products/1428781-the-center-cannot-hold-my-journey-through-madness)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Indonesia*
*Store origin: ID*
*Last updated: 2026-05-10*