Pathological - by Sarah Fay (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

USA TODAY NATIONAL BESTSELLER

AN APPLE BOOKS PICK OF THE MONTH

"Sharply personal and impeccably detailed."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"[A] fiery manifesto of a memoir."--New York Times

"Masterfully written, distinctively researched, deeply humane ... Genius."--Anthony Swofford, international and New York Times bestselling author of Jarhead

"A major contribution ... A necessary book."--Johann Hari, author of Lost Connections

"This book is a triumph of the spirit and the flesh."--Eliza Griswold, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Amity and Prosperity

Is a psychiatric diagnosis a lifeline or a self-fulfilling prophecy?

In this stunning debut--both a memoir and work of investigative journalism--bestselling author and former advisory editor at The Paris Review Sarah Fay chronicles her harrowing journey through six psychiatric diagnoses that began when she was just twelve years old.

Diagnosed with anorexia, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, ADHD, OCD, and bipolar disorder over twenty-five years, Fay lived under the weight of each label--until finally, while in her forties and no longer able to live independently, she began to question the very system that defined her. With exquisite detail and wry honesty, she digs up her own life at the root to reveal the crippling impact of overidentification with psychiatric diagnoses, especially for young people.

Pathological is both a cautionary tale and a deeply researched exposé. Fay discovers that some of our most prominent psychiatrists have been warning us that psychiatry's diagnostic bible--the DSM--isn't the scientific manual it's touted to be.

Powerful, mesmerizing, and unputdownable, Pathological calls for a new conversation about mental health--one based on transparency and patient empowerment. It sits alongside the other brave and inspiring classics of our time that explore a more intelligent, forgiving, and nuanced approach to human suffering.

Review Quotes

"Fay is a deeply compelling person and a fantastic writer ... We were wowed by her talent for bolstering personal stories with takeaways backed up with careful research. Pathological will make you passionate about improving the way we handle mental health." - Apple Books
"Incisive, insightful, and deeply researched, Pathological urges restraint on DSM-encouraged medicalization and overdiagnosis." - Psychology Today
"[A] fiery manifesto of a memoir." - New York Times Book Review
"Powerfully blends autobiographical experiences with insightful critiques of the DSM, showing its simultaneous inevitability and fundamental flaws." - Allan V. Horwitz, author of DSM
"In this brilliant and excruciating memoir, through careful reporting and exquisite analysis, Fay takes on the myriad ways in which women's minds, not simply our bodies, have become a marketplace for trendy and dangerous ideas about mental health. This book is a triumph of the spirit and the flesh for a woman who since the age of twelve has been fighting, against all odds, not only to survive, but to live." - Eliza Griswold, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Amity & Prosperity
"Sarah Fay has written one of the most compelling memoirs I have read in ages. Pathological is a must-read for anyone who has been through the roller coaster that is the mental illness industry in America. Fay creates a work of art that entertains as much as it informs; if this were a movie, it would be the sort of documentary that contains every mode from romantic comedy to art-house film to thriller in one. The prose is so electric, incisive, witty, irreverent, devastating, sparkling! Whether she is riffing on the mechanics of English grammar, confronting the DSM in full-on unapologetic manifesto-mode, or winding us through the ups and downs of a very fully-lived life, Sarah Fay has created a masterpiece that is a true original on every level." - Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick: A Memoir
"We urgently need to think about our mental and emotional pain and distress in a more loving, nuanced, and intelligent way. Pathological will be a major contribution towards achieving that - a crucial and necessary book." - Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author of Lost Connections: Why You're Depressed and How to Find Hope
"An utterly unique memoir written with rare immediacy about the consequences of the language of psychiatric diagnosis. In Pathological, Fay beautifully describes navigating the uncertainty of six mental health misdiagnoses and brilliantly unpacks the dangers of labeling with a mental illness in the face of the complexities of our mental and emotional lives. Brave, heartbreaking, and inspiring, Pathological is a necessary book." - Jenn Percy, journalist, New York Times Magazine writer, and recipient of the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing
"Pathological is the best book I've read in many years. Masterfully written, distinctively researched, and deeply humane, it joins our finest literature on medicine and psychiatry and the eternal riddle we call our minds. Fay's artful work is pleasingly unclassifiable: call it medical memoir; mental health thriller; comic punctuation primer; DSM and Big Pharma smackdown. I'll just call it genius. It's also contrarian, controversial, and beautifully, validly angry. If you or anyone you love has spent time in the mental health industrial complex (or, cauldron)--buy this book now and read it." - Anthony Swofford, international and New York Times bestselling author of Jarhead
"Sharply personal and impeccably detailed, [Pathological] is bound to raise questions in the minds of readers diagnosed with any number of disorders about the validity of trying to cram individual experience into what Fay contends are essentially imaginary categories. A provocative and original examination of the flaws in mental health treatment." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)