When I was first diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder bipolar type, I looked for the best books about schizophrenia to help me learn about what my new normal with my new diagnosis would look like. Ever a nerd, I researched the best schizophrenia books that would help me look at my condition from a spectrum of perspectives. This list contains 20 books on schizophrenia that reflect a diverse array of subjects and experiences, including books on understanding schizophrenia for families and loved ones and a multitude of memoirs about schizophrenia. It is my hope that it will be a resource for understanding schizophrenia that patients, family members, and mental health practitioners can use for help, healing, and hope.
You might also be interested in my list of the 20 best books about bipolar disorder…
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And now onto the best books about schizophrenia…
The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn R. Saks
Perhaps one of the most important books about schizophrenia, Elyn R. Saks’ The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey through Madness is undeniably a groundbreaking book in breaking the stigma of schizophrenia. Through relating her journey with schizophrenia, law professor Saks championed transparency while penning a riveting autobiography that cracked open the schizophrenia experience for all to see.
How to read it: Purchase The Center Cannot Hold on Amazon
Cognitive Therapy of Schizophrenia by David G. Kingdon and Douglas Turkington
When I was 18, I saw a student intern at the Penn Center for Cognitive Therapy for outpatient therapy. I was exhibiting some of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia (in particular, delusions), but they slipped through the cracks as I was treated primarily for depression and anxiety. The result was my cognitive therapy treatment wasn’t tailored to psychosis. Now, however, we have books like David G. Kingdon and Douglas Turkington’s Cognitive Therapy of Schizophrenia. This essential book is one of the best schizophrenia books for patients, allies, and mental health professionals alike. Finally we have a treatment option to alleviate schizophrenia symptoms beyond medication. Through chapters on topics like psychoeducation and normalization, intervening with delusions and hallucinations, and negative symptoms, this comprehensive book about understanding schizophrenia fills the gap in knowledge about how to treat schizophrenia with psychotherapy.
In short, this book gives me something I craved and needed so much when I was younger: hope.
How to read it: Purchase Cognitive Therapy of Schizophrenia on Amazon
The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang
While there’s plenty of writing about schizophrenia, there’s less out there about schizoaffective disorder, the condition I have. In The Collected Schizophrenias, Esmé Weijun Wang peels back the curtain on this comparably rare diagnosis. With essays spanning topics like fashion to being “high functioning” to specific delusions, like the Capgras delusion that your loved ones have been replaced by an identical imposter, The Collected Schizophrenias is an essential schizophrenia book and one of the best books on schizoaffective disorder.
How to read it: Purchase The Collected Schizophrenias on Amazon
The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia by Kim T. Mueser and Susan Gingerich
It can be hard to watch your loved one deal with schizophrenia, and, simultaneously, it’s equally hard to face this illness without the support of your family. Enter The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia by Kim T. Mueser, PhD, and Susan Gingerich, MSW. One of the best books for schizophrenia patients, this book covers topics like an overview of the illness, special issues for specific family members (like a patient’s mother, sister, or brother, etc.), preventing relapses, dealing with specific symptoms like delusions and hallucinations, and helping your loved one improve their quality of life. If you’re looking for a comprehensive guide to schizophrenia from a family standpoint, it doesn’t get much better than this book.
How to read it: Purchase The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia on Amazon
The Day the Voices Stopped by Ken Steele
Among the many best books on schizophrenias, the memoir The Day the Voices Stop is one of the oldest (published in 2001) and most highly regarded. This harrowing story follows Ken Steele’s lifelong struggle with schizophrenias, in particular command hallucinations and paranoid delusions, and eventual step towards healing with the help of psychiatric medicine. Steele’s vivid prose, written with Claire Berman, brings his nightmare and eventual recovery to life in this memoir that ranks among the best schizophrenia books.
How to read it: Purchase The Day the Voices Stopped on Amazon
Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness by Andrew Scull
There’s no history of schizophrenia without a history of psychiatry. And in Desperate Remedies, narrative medicine scholar Andrew Scull delivers a comprehensive history of the field of psychiatry. The author of the acclaimed history of mental illness, Madness in Civilization, Scull here has written an account of psychiatry that is equal parts readable, educational, rousing, fascinating, and challenging. Anyone who wants to learn more about schizophrenia within the context of the psychiatric field will want to pick this one up.
How to read it: Purchase Desperate Remedies on Amazon
The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Psychosis by Maggie Mullen, LCSW
As a schizophrenic, I have always wished there were more therapy options for dealing with my illness, especially my psychosis symptoms. Sure, there’s medication, but how do you treat the condition outside meds? Enter The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Psychosis. Among the best books for schizophrenia patients, Maggie Mullen’s workbook fills the gap in therapy books about schizophrenia, offering the chance to develop skills of resilience, learn coping skills, and devise methods for dealing with psychosis outside medication. I love that this book is an interactive workbook you can go through at your own pace or with the assistance of a mental health professional. The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Psychosis is truly a beacon of hope in the treatment of psychosis.
How to read it: Purchase The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Psychosis on Amazon
Divided Minds by Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S. Spiro, M.D.
Many of the best books about schizophrenia are written by loved ones. That’s certainly the case with Divided Minds. Co-written by twin sisters Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S. Spiro, Divided Minds details the experience the two had while Pamela developed schizophrenia and Carolyn thrived. As Pamela’s condition deteriorated, Carolyn emerged as a medical student and, ultimately, a psychiatrist, but still the sisters remained close. Together and told in alternating voices, Pamela and Carolyn have written here a crucial book in the literature of memoirs about schizophrenia.
How to read it: Purchase Divided Minds on Amazon
The Edge of Every Day by Marin Sardy
If we’re talking about the best books about schizophrenia, Marin Sardy’s The Edge of Every Day definitely deserves a spot on that list. Sardy grew up with a schizophrenic mother in Anchorage, Alaska. Sardy’s mother refused treatment, leading to a challenging childhood for Sardy. Later, Sardy’s brother developed the same condition and ultimately died by suicide. In The Edge of Every Day, at the top of any list of the best schizophrenia books, Sardy collects her essays about the experience of being a loved one who bears witness to this untamable illness. Sardy’s voice is an important contribution to books about schizophrenia from the perspective of a family member.
How to read it: Purchase The Edge of Every Day on Amazon
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
Robert Kolker’s Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family was named one of the top five nonfiction books published in 2020, and it’s not hard to see why. This engrossing read chronicles the devastating history of the Galvin family. Of their twelve children, six of Don and Mimi Galvin’s sons developed schizophrenia. What follows is a fascinating account of how the Galvins contributed to scientific research about the genetic nature of mental illness. The Galvins were among the first families that the National Institute of Mental Health studied. Although their lives were marked by the tragedy and hardship of mental illness, the Galvins persevered, and their history is presented in parallel with the evolving practices of psychiatry, psychotherapy, and psychopharmacology. This is definitely on the list of the best schizophrenia books.
How to read it: Purchase Hidden Valley Road on Amazon
A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise by Sandy Allen
This interesting hybrid memoir deserves a spot on any list of the best books about schizophrenia. Sandy Allen’s eccentric Uncle Bob was allegedly “crazy” and had lived outside society in a series of mental institutions for parts of the ’60s and ’70s. But they didn’t really have a relationship. Until Uncle Bob sends Allen his autobiography in 2009, asking them to help bring it to publication. The result, A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise, is a hybrid memoir that includes Allen’s narrative and Uncle Bob’s autobiography as translated by Allen. This remarkable memoir is one of the most important schizophrenia books because it truly does tell Bob’s story to the world, an important record of narrative medicine about patient experiences.
How to read it: Purchase A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise on Amazon
Like Crazy: Life with My Mother and Her Invisible Friends by Dan Mathews
When Dan Mathews watched his eccentric seventy-eight-year-old mother become unable to live independently, he crossed the country to stay with her in Virginia. While doing that, a trip to the emergency room reveals Mathews’ mother had lived her whole adult life as an undiagnosed schizophrenic. Uplifting and hopeful, count Like Crazy stands as ranking among the best memoirs about schizophrenia.
How to read it: Purchase Like Crazy on Amazon
Mind Fixers: Psychiatry’s Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness by Anne Harrington
One of the ways we understand mental illness is through biology. But even biology has its limit in explaining how mental illness forms and how it gets treated. In Mind Fixers, Harvard history professor Anne Harrington explores the imperfect science of how psychiatry, neurology, and biology all fail to give us easy answers or even answer at all for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. Harrington dedicates a whole chapter to the complexities of the science behind schizophrenia. If you want to understand how to think about schizophrenia in biological terms, check out this book.
How to read it: Purchase Mind Fixers on Amazon
No One Cares about Crazy People by Ron Powers
New York Times bestselling author Ron Powers delivers a searing indictment of the way the mentally ill are treated in America. The title of this book says it all: “No one cares about crazy people.” Powers has first-hand experience as his two sons both have schizophrenia. One died by suicide while the other lives but still struggles with his illness. While trying to be a good ally, Powers embarked on a journey down the mental health rabbit hole that ultimately lead to his realization of just how badly the system is stacked against the mentally ill and their loved ones. This is a challenging book to read because the results Powers finds are uneasy and unsettling, but this is book is a must have for anyone looking to understand schizophrenia.
How to read it: Purchase No One Cares About Crazy People on Amazon
The Perfect Other: A Memoir of My Sister by Kyleigh Leddy
A newer title on this list of the best books about schizophrenia, The Perfect Other is a must read. Kait Leddy was overjoyed to have a younger sister, Kyleigh, the author of this memoir. But as Kait grew into an adolescent, cracks began to emerge: she was emotionally and physically volatile, her personality changed, and she began to lose her grip on reality. The result was a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Ultimately, Kyleigh lost her sister to schizophrenia. First, Kait went missing, and then she was seen on security cameras making her way to a bridge off which it’s concluded she jumped, though her body was never recovered. Memoirs about schizophrenia don’t get more raw and real than this.
How to read it: Purchase The Perfect Other on Amazon
The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness by Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett
The Quiet Room is a visceral reading experience as it relates Lori Schiller’s journey of madness. As an adolescent, Schiller had a seemingly perfect life. Six years later, she attempted suicide and then wandered the streets of New York speaking with invisible voices. And so began a lifelong battle with schizophrenia, one that took her through hospitals and half-way houses, while she struggled with co-morbid addiction. The Quiet Room is Schiller’s account of living with schizophrenia in a story that ends on a hopeful and uplifting note.
How to read it: Purchase The Quiet Room on Amazon
A Road Back from Schizophrenia by Arnhild Lauveng
Arnhild Lauveng’s captivating memoir A Road Back from Schizophrenia holds no punches and ranks among the best books about schizophrenia. In her autobiography, Lauveng offers a peek inside her experience with the illness, including the months or, in one case, a year inside psychiatric units and psychiatric hospitals, plus more about how it actually feels to have this condition. In zesty prose and unsparing detail, Lauveng offers a candid, honest look at living with schizophrenia.
How to read it: Purchase A Road Back from Schizophrenia on Amazon
Schizophrenia: A Very Short Introduction by Christopher Frith and Eve C. Johnstone
Schizophrenia is as complex as it is complicated. There’s a confusing set of symptoms that often lead to misdiagnosis, a host of conflicting medication and treatment options, and still many mysteries as the fields of medicine and science struggle to understand the origins and outcomes of schizophrenia. For an accessible, informative introduction on the disease, pick up Schizophrenia: A Very Short Introduction by Christopher Frith and Eve C. Johnstone, among the best books about schizophrenia. In barely more than 200 pages in a tiny book, the authors manage to demystify schizophrenia in this simple intro to this devastating mental illness.
How to read it: Purchase Schizophrenia: A Very Short Introduction on Amazon
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Family Manual by E. Fuller Torrey, M.D.
Now in its seventh edition, Surviving Schizophrenia: A Family Manual remains one of the best books for schizophrenia patients. Understanding schizophrenia is easier when you have this book as your guide. For family members, allies, and loved ones, Surviving Schizophrenia helps those who care for a person with schizophrenia better comprehend the diagnosis, symptoms, and treatment of this oft-misunderstood illness. You’ll find this book covers topics like the causes of schizophrenia, the treatment of schizophrenia with meds and other options, and the onset, course, and prognosis of schizophrenia. Together, this book provides a roadmap through the stormy waters of schizophrenia and earns its stripes one of the great books about schizophrenia.
How to read it: Purchase Surviving Schizophrenia on Amazon
When the Sun Bursts: The Enigma of Schizophrenia by Christopher Bollas
We’re ending this list of the best books about schizophrenia on a hopeful note. Acclaimed psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas argues that schizophrenia patients can be helped by gentler treatment than psychopharmacology, incarceration, dehumanization, and isolation that characterize so many schizophrenic experiences. Drawing on his fifty-year career, Bollas asserts that psychotherapy and, in particular, psychoanalysis, can help restore schizophrenic patients to stability. Given that this list of the best schizophrenia books has also featured cognitive therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy as treatment options, we have cause for hope that talk therapy and its variants can make a significant difference in the lives of those with schizophrenia and their family and loved ones.
