Wang believes this bill denies people with mental health conditions their right to autonomy. The essay also examines California Assembly Bill #1421, which allows for the involuntary hospitalization of the mentally ill. Lothell murdered her brother after he threatened to kill her two-year-old daughter, whom he believed “had the devil in her” (28). In “Toward a Pathology of the Possessed,” Wang details the 1988 murder of a schizophrenic man named Malcoum Tate by his sister Lothell. She also writes of her time working in the Stanford Department of Psychology as a lab manager, in which she diagnosed people with depressive disorder as part of a study. She outlines the DSM-5 criteria for schizophrenia, which includes delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech, and notes that she found comfort in her diagnosis, as it meant that she was not “pioneering an inexplicable experience” (5). In “Diagnosis,” Wang writes about being diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder after suffering from hallucinations. The author also writes about important societal issues that affect those with serious mental health conditions.
The Collected Schizophrenias is a collection of essays exploring the author's experience with schizoaffective disorder, as well as PTSD and Lyme disease. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Wang, Esmé Weijun.
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