Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah CahalanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Short chapters are one factor that makes this medical memoir a fast read. That is the only thing easy about the trip into Anti-NMDA Receptor Autoimmune Encephalitis. For the author, it is a complex and terrifying abrupt journey into the madness that arises from this this rare disorder. The bizarre psychiatric symptoms that lead to catatonia, paranoia, hallucination, and language lapses can lead death, may spring from teratoma and is often misdiagnosed. Exorcism is tried on some sufferers finding no release through traditional treatment going after some other disorder they do not have. The veteran reporter presents her storied, fragmented by lack of memory and polluted with hallucination, with a mixture of reportage and autobiography.
Cahalan shares not only personal experience, but what she learned about neuroscience in general and this specific illness. As she quotes from Apprentices of Wonder: Inside the Neural Network Revolution: "The brain is a monstrous, wonderful mess." This is one story of that messes coming apart, and getting put back together.
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