The Collected Schizophrenias

Content Warning: This section contains discussions of suicide and involuntary hospitalization.

Wang’s second essay begins by recounting the murder of Malcoum Tate, a man with paranoid schizophrenia whose sister and mother were supposedly driven to murder him after years of living in fear and frustration at the hands of his illness. Wang does not comment on the case, instead moving into a discussion of schizophrenia’s general prognosis and how it is said to be a disorder that slowly destroys the brain, which she disagrees with.

In 2013, Wang experienced a psychotic episode that lasted seven months. None of the treatments were working, and her doctor told her that the episode was causing her brain to go through a process of “replacement and deletion” (28). Wang mentions the organization known as the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), which focuses on prevention and helping families of people with mental illness. Ironically, the organization supports Bill AB 1421 in California, which permits forcing mental health patients into treatment whether they consent or not. One NAMI representative with whom Wang spoke claims that her family member was hospitalized 70 times, and his violence never ceased. For that reason, she believes he should be medicated against his will.