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Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen
A raw and masterful memoir about becoming a woman and going mad—and doing both at once.
When Suzanne Scanlon was a student at Barnard in the 90s, grieving the loss of her mother—feeling untethered and swimming through inarticulable pain—she made a suicide attempt that landed her in the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
After nearly three years and countless experimental treatments, Suzanne left the ward on shaky legs. In the decades it took her to recover from the experience, Suzanne came to understand her suffering as part of something a long tradition of women whose complicated and compromised stories of self-actualization are reduced to “crazy chick” and “madwoman” narratives. It was a thrilling discovery, and she searched for more books, more woman writers, as the journey of her life converged with her journey through the literature that shaped her.
Transporting, honest, and graceful, Committed is a story of discovery and recovery, reclaiming the idea of the madwoman as a template for insight and transcendence through the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Janet Frame, Audre Lorde, Shulamith Firestone, and others.
When Suzanne Scanlon was a student at Barnard in the 90s, grieving the loss of her mother—feeling untethered and swimming through inarticulable pain—she made a suicide attempt that landed her in the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
After nearly three years and countless experimental treatments, Suzanne left the ward on shaky legs. In the decades it took her to recover from the experience, Suzanne came to understand her suffering as part of something a long tradition of women whose complicated and compromised stories of self-actualization are reduced to “crazy chick” and “madwoman” narratives. It was a thrilling discovery, and she searched for more books, more woman writers, as the journey of her life converged with her journey through the literature that shaped her.
Transporting, honest, and graceful, Committed is a story of discovery and recovery, reclaiming the idea of the madwoman as a template for insight and transcendence through the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Janet Frame, Audre Lorde, Shulamith Firestone, and others.
368 pages, Paperback
First published April 25, 2024
208 people are currently reading
14535 people want to read
About the author
Suzanne Scanlon
11 books178 followersSuzanne Scanlon is the author of two works of fiction, the critically acclaimed Promising Young Women (Dorothy 2012) and the experimental novel Her 37th Year, An Index (Noemi 2015). Her first work of nonfiction, Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen, is forthcoming from Vintage and John Murray in the UK. Scanlon has taught at conferences and colleges nationwide; and has been awarded fellowships from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Ox-Bow Artists Residency, and the Ragdale Foundation. She is the recipient of an MFA from Northwestern University and teaches creative writing at Northwestern and the School of the Art Institute Chicago. Her essays and fiction have appeared in Granta, Fence, Harper’s Bazaar, the Iowa Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. Her work has been anthologized and translated into many languages. For years, she reviewed theater for Time Out and the Chicago Reader.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 346 reviews
May 2, 2024
Here’s a review: I have 22 screenshots in my phone of quotes from this book that I want to go look at while I go for a walk in the woods
February 19, 2024
This was a memoir of a young woman who was institutionalized for a few years in a mental hospital in NYC. It all seemed to stem from a profound grief, almost a loss of self, after the death of her mother from breast cancer when Suzanne was a little girl. Interwoven with all of this was Suzanne's revelatory discoveries of female authors with suicidal ideation such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Janet Frame, Audre Lorde, Shulamith Firestone, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Suzanne treasured books, always reading and writing, and ultimately became a teacher, discussing some of these books.
It was an interesting voyeur experience into the world of mental illness, navigating the treatments, therapies, medications, etc. I did feel a kinship with the author as far as reading, how you intensely connect with some books, especially in your youth, and feel a lifelong bond with them like treasures; how they also serve as a comforting balm.
The book could have used a little more editing and focus, as some of the concepts became repetitive and time frames moved back and forth. Honestly, some of the psychological passages went over my head, but others were compelling. In particular, I found it interesting how one psych doctor talked Suzanne down from suicidal ideation by telling her she should get some coffee (Suzanne didn't ever drink coffee) and just go to her class (Suzanne didn't feel like she was able to get out of bed). Overall, this was a worthwhile and thought provoking read about trying to make it through this thing called life.
Thank you to the publisher Vintage for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
It was an interesting voyeur experience into the world of mental illness, navigating the treatments, therapies, medications, etc. I did feel a kinship with the author as far as reading, how you intensely connect with some books, especially in your youth, and feel a lifelong bond with them like treasures; how they also serve as a comforting balm.
The book could have used a little more editing and focus, as some of the concepts became repetitive and time frames moved back and forth. Honestly, some of the psychological passages went over my head, but others were compelling. In particular, I found it interesting how one psych doctor talked Suzanne down from suicidal ideation by telling her she should get some coffee (Suzanne didn't ever drink coffee) and just go to her class (Suzanne didn't feel like she was able to get out of bed). Overall, this was a worthwhile and thought provoking read about trying to make it through this thing called life.
Thank you to the publisher Vintage for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
March 23, 2024
thank you suzanne for writing this book
July 15, 2024
Reading novels about mental illness when you are in a limbo in your own mental health journey feels akin to dining in at a restaurant that gave you food poisoning a month ago: you can still vividly remember the sickness, and while you objectively know the chances of getting sick that sick again so soon are small, the act of consuming anything from this source after your history has you suddenly feeling the bile rising back up your throat, the depression reanimating in the dark corners of your brain, a comforting yet pernicious beckoning back into the feelings and state of mind you know unfortunately too well.
I haven't personally been committed to the hospital for my mental illness, but I have spent the majority of my life committed to trying to live with it, barely living with it; it's presence at points causing the living I am doing to be in the barest and simplest sense of the term
Committed, is as it's claim, on meaning and madwomen, encompassing the mental health environment of the 1990s to now, Scanlon's personal history with it, and the ways in which writing and reading have been for her an unchanging life giving constant throughout it all.
Scanlon personally explores the literary canon of mentally ill literature, from Girl, Interrupted and The Bell Jar, to Virginia Woolf and Kate Chopin, deeply melancholic stories about and from women we have all come to be extremely familiar with in the literary sphere of unwell women. She unpacks the ways in which she unhealthily finds but also comfortingly seeks kinship in these women's stories, testaments, and untimely deaths, moments of shared maddening clarity that provide a conflicted feeling of recognition and familiarity while also giving over a feeling of being head-achingly nauseous at the fact that you can relate so deeply with these women while seeing the sinister ways in which their lives ultimately turned out. “I identify with her, a girl says, and I'm not sure I'm supposed to."
“The freedom of the madwoman, as Susan Sontag wrote in her journal, both dream and trap.”
As women, sometimes the ones who identify with our madness so dizzyingly are just as introspective and quiet about it, leaving us feeling lonely in it all. But as Scanion expresses in the book, it is in literature where we can most easily identify ourselves, whether fiction or non; it's easier to confess to and configure in words your own instability on your own time, in a room of your own, as Woolf says, somewhere not only to write but to come to terms with self, while alone but also in regards to others. "As James Baldwin put it, ‘You think your pain and your heartbreak are
unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.’”
“I'm sorry, my dear, but this is all we have.
Words. This is our medium.”
“Where would I be without these women with messed-up lives?" A question I ask myself too often; If not for the reassurance that other women have felt this way have always felt this way, would I be better or worse off? I am not alone, I am not the only one who feels like this, but in constantly seeking out this fecling in others in order to make myself feel less guilty, maybe I am moving too much in a quicksand already trying to swallow me up. "The story is about your suffering and the story creates your suffering too.”
In writing about these things, I feel similar to what Scanlon expresses in the book, "I had the sense that if I could turn my own melting into something the way Audre Lorde did, the way Virginia Woolf did it would mean something. All my suffering, my stupid life, would mean something." Through this desperate weaving of words in order to salvage something of the life we have felt has gone to waste, maybe we will make something that will make us feel it was at least somewhat worth it, that this madness had and has a deeper meaning. “— what is madness if not the horror of being misunderstood, of being unable to make a self comprehensible to another?"
Sometimes I know I am too committed to my own history and current situation with mental illness, but I am committed in a way you would find in a long-term relationship;
My mental illness has been there as long as I can remember, and even with all of my attempts and desperate longing to get better, to be better, I know deep in my soul that there is something about it's presence and the excuse of it that is comforting. I am the way I am because of this crutch I have been walking on my whole life, and even if I have healed enough to walk without this crutch, at this point it is fused to my being and I only know myself in context to it.
to indulge all of what you've been told is wrong with you.”
“— being sick is a cure for how bad you feel."
I am not myself without my madness, and yet I wish I knew who I could be without it. I wish the metaphorical chair I have warmed for myself was more like someone else's. But maybe I just need to stand up, or at least let this worn spot become less comfortable, even though this imprinted shape in the space I have taken up for so long might be the only place I recognize myself. One day I will be able to recognize myself as better, even if it's only in fleeting moments. Scanlon succeeds in her exploration of madness, continuing with the ever present and profitable literary role of hysteria, that in itself is maddening to consume.
I haven't personally been committed to the hospital for my mental illness, but I have spent the majority of my life committed to trying to live with it, barely living with it; it's presence at points causing the living I am doing to be in the barest and simplest sense of the term
Committed, is as it's claim, on meaning and madwomen, encompassing the mental health environment of the 1990s to now, Scanlon's personal history with it, and the ways in which writing and reading have been for her an unchanging life giving constant throughout it all.
Scanlon personally explores the literary canon of mentally ill literature, from Girl, Interrupted and The Bell Jar, to Virginia Woolf and Kate Chopin, deeply melancholic stories about and from women we have all come to be extremely familiar with in the literary sphere of unwell women. She unpacks the ways in which she unhealthily finds but also comfortingly seeks kinship in these women's stories, testaments, and untimely deaths, moments of shared maddening clarity that provide a conflicted feeling of recognition and familiarity while also giving over a feeling of being head-achingly nauseous at the fact that you can relate so deeply with these women while seeing the sinister ways in which their lives ultimately turned out. “I identify with her, a girl says, and I'm not sure I'm supposed to."
“The freedom of the madwoman, as Susan Sontag wrote in her journal, both dream and trap.”
As women, sometimes the ones who identify with our madness so dizzyingly are just as introspective and quiet about it, leaving us feeling lonely in it all. But as Scanion expresses in the book, it is in literature where we can most easily identify ourselves, whether fiction or non; it's easier to confess to and configure in words your own instability on your own time, in a room of your own, as Woolf says, somewhere not only to write but to come to terms with self, while alone but also in regards to others. "As James Baldwin put it, ‘You think your pain and your heartbreak are
unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.’”
“I'm sorry, my dear, but this is all we have.
Words. This is our medium.”
“Where would I be without these women with messed-up lives?" A question I ask myself too often; If not for the reassurance that other women have felt this way have always felt this way, would I be better or worse off? I am not alone, I am not the only one who feels like this, but in constantly seeking out this fecling in others in order to make myself feel less guilty, maybe I am moving too much in a quicksand already trying to swallow me up. "The story is about your suffering and the story creates your suffering too.”
In writing about these things, I feel similar to what Scanlon expresses in the book, "I had the sense that if I could turn my own melting into something the way Audre Lorde did, the way Virginia Woolf did it would mean something. All my suffering, my stupid life, would mean something." Through this desperate weaving of words in order to salvage something of the life we have felt has gone to waste, maybe we will make something that will make us feel it was at least somewhat worth it, that this madness had and has a deeper meaning. “— what is madness if not the horror of being misunderstood, of being unable to make a self comprehensible to another?"
Sometimes I know I am too committed to my own history and current situation with mental illness, but I am committed in a way you would find in a long-term relationship;
My mental illness has been there as long as I can remember, and even with all of my attempts and desperate longing to get better, to be better, I know deep in my soul that there is something about it's presence and the excuse of it that is comforting. I am the way I am because of this crutch I have been walking on my whole life, and even if I have healed enough to walk without this crutch, at this point it is fused to my being and I only know myself in context to it.
to indulge all of what you've been told is wrong with you.”
“— being sick is a cure for how bad you feel."
I am not myself without my madness, and yet I wish I knew who I could be without it. I wish the metaphorical chair I have warmed for myself was more like someone else's. But maybe I just need to stand up, or at least let this worn spot become less comfortable, even though this imprinted shape in the space I have taken up for so long might be the only place I recognize myself. One day I will be able to recognize myself as better, even if it's only in fleeting moments. Scanlon succeeds in her exploration of madness, continuing with the ever present and profitable literary role of hysteria, that in itself is maddening to consume.
May 29, 2024
Dit boek. Waar moet ik beginnen. Misschien toen ik dertig werd in de psychiatrie en daar pas zes maanden later weer vertrok. Wat had ik dit boek graag toen gelezen. Suzanne Scanlon vertelt over haar eigen opnames en leven, over het moeilijke diagnosticeren. Over vrouwen en mentale gezondheid. Over schrijven en lezen. Veel lezen. Ze bespreekt o.a. The Bell Jar, The Yellow Wallpaper, Woolf, Didion, Kraus, … (Ik ben momenteel de hele bibliografie aan het uitpluizen op wat ik nog niet heb en dus moet kopen). Iedereen die zelf te kampen had of heeft met mentale moeilijkheden, iedereen die inzicht wil krijgen in die strijd of wil begrijpen hoe het leven achter de stigmatiserende tralies van de psychiatrie soms voelt: lees dit boek. Soms was het alsof ze mijn eigen verhaal schreef, het kwam zo dichtbij. Het is een ode aan de literatuur. Het is intelligent, innemend en rauw, prachtig geschreven en ik raad het iedereen aan. Al mijn liefde en dank voor Suzanne Scanlon. ♥️
May 29, 2024
absolutely devoured this over the span of about 2 days. that approach could be a bit intense for some readers, but scanlon’s account of her time in and out of the new york state psychiatric institute in the 90s was gripping and propulsive. i can only imagine the amount of self-reflection and sifting through painful memories it must have taken to write this book, but scanlon did it with such simplicity and openness. there is no sugarcoating of the difficulty of the situation she was in, and we see the effects of it even years later, as she navigates life post-hospitalization and becomes a teacher and a mother. also, lots of beautiful writing on the difficulty of mother-daughter relationships within the context of grief and illness that really touched me.
we see her grappling with mental illness and loss at the same time as she is finding herself as a reader and intellectual. the fellow female writers whose work and lives she explores added so much to this book for me - following her journey into feminist literature and how she was able to apply those themes to her own life was relatable and well done, and expanded my reading list. she was able to blend her own experiences with these outside experiences in a way that didn’t feel jarring or jumpy to me. i can see how some may think it’s a fragmentary style, but i was really able to pick up on its flow, reading almost 200 pages in one day.
i do think the book could’ve been edited just a little bit better. some anecdotes were repetitive while other concepts weren’t really explained (thinking of some of the terms she pulls in from erving goffman‘s asylum).
definitely one to pick up if the themes sound at all interesting to you, and looking forward to reading scanlon’s fiction in the future!
we see her grappling with mental illness and loss at the same time as she is finding herself as a reader and intellectual. the fellow female writers whose work and lives she explores added so much to this book for me - following her journey into feminist literature and how she was able to apply those themes to her own life was relatable and well done, and expanded my reading list. she was able to blend her own experiences with these outside experiences in a way that didn’t feel jarring or jumpy to me. i can see how some may think it’s a fragmentary style, but i was really able to pick up on its flow, reading almost 200 pages in one day.
i do think the book could’ve been edited just a little bit better. some anecdotes were repetitive while other concepts weren’t really explained (thinking of some of the terms she pulls in from erving goffman‘s asylum).
definitely one to pick up if the themes sound at all interesting to you, and looking forward to reading scanlon’s fiction in the future!
July 2, 2024
A frustrating read because this is an interesting subject but I did not enjoy the writing at all. The chronology jumps around constantly, sometimes every other paragraph. Best parts were her discussion of “mad” women writers and literature.
May 9, 2024
normally i leave memoirs unrated, i mean they are literally someone’s life experiences and who am i to click X amount of stars on someone’s life.
but i will, for the sake of goodreads and the author, give 5 stars to this brilliantly written, composed, and slightly jarring memoir.
Committed follows Suzy through her years before, during and after being an inpatient at a psych ward. the chronological order is mostly correct, occasionally jumping back or forwards through time for a little added on explanation. and to hear the story of someone who experienced mental illness in all its glory for so long and continues to deal with it is amazing.
but what most stood out to me is the gorgeous prose, the stunning writing of this memoir. Suzanne has a talent for taking something bleak and gray and adding a certain flair with wording. Still the topic is sad, but it is poetic too. It is wonderful and heartbreaking to read a memoir that i find myself in, especially one as vast in emotions as this one.
i am very intrigued to read her other work, to continue to follow for more work, to hope that the author is doing better, whatever that means for her. and thank you, thank you for giving me the language for some of my own thoughts and feelings that had just been, before reading this.
but i will, for the sake of goodreads and the author, give 5 stars to this brilliantly written, composed, and slightly jarring memoir.
Committed follows Suzy through her years before, during and after being an inpatient at a psych ward. the chronological order is mostly correct, occasionally jumping back or forwards through time for a little added on explanation. and to hear the story of someone who experienced mental illness in all its glory for so long and continues to deal with it is amazing.
but what most stood out to me is the gorgeous prose, the stunning writing of this memoir. Suzanne has a talent for taking something bleak and gray and adding a certain flair with wording. Still the topic is sad, but it is poetic too. It is wonderful and heartbreaking to read a memoir that i find myself in, especially one as vast in emotions as this one.
i am very intrigued to read her other work, to continue to follow for more work, to hope that the author is doing better, whatever that means for her. and thank you, thank you for giving me the language for some of my own thoughts and feelings that had just been, before reading this.
April 10, 2024
4.5 / "Only in retrospect might I say I loved it there. I didn't love it. It became familiar. I got used to it. I became dependent upon it. This is not love."
As someone who was also "committed" for two of my teen years, I was HIGHLY anticipating but also slightly nervous about reading this book! Obviously it deeply resonated with me, but our experiences differed greatly over years (90s and 2010s) and miles (new york and alaska), and I think that's why it worked so well for me. She writes non-linearly of the loss of her mother, her experience in the hospital, the time before, the friends she makes, the doctors/aides that she encountered, and media she resonates with. There is really so much packed into this book but it is balanced so well.
My only two critiques: at one point she refers to her imagined readers of this book: 1. those who imagine they could be her and 2. those who are sure they are NOT her, having no imagination for those who have similar experiences.
The second is quote from a conversation with another doctor after her stay, but she is very insistent on the fact that they do not keep patients in hospitals for that long, and that if they did, they don't do it anymore.
So at times it just felt very individual, exclusive, and while it is of course not a common experience, it is not a singular one and it certainly did not contain itself in the 90s.
Other than that, this was a perfect book to me, and I will likely revisit it!
"It doesn't have to be everything about me, but it is not nothing, it never was."
As someone who was also "committed" for two of my teen years, I was HIGHLY anticipating but also slightly nervous about reading this book! Obviously it deeply resonated with me, but our experiences differed greatly over years (90s and 2010s) and miles (new york and alaska), and I think that's why it worked so well for me. She writes non-linearly of the loss of her mother, her experience in the hospital, the time before, the friends she makes, the doctors/aides that she encountered, and media she resonates with. There is really so much packed into this book but it is balanced so well.
My only two critiques: at one point she refers to her imagined readers of this book: 1. those who imagine they could be her and 2. those who are sure they are NOT her, having no imagination for those who have similar experiences.
The second is quote from a conversation with another doctor after her stay, but she is very insistent on the fact that they do not keep patients in hospitals for that long, and that if they did, they don't do it anymore.
So at times it just felt very individual, exclusive, and while it is of course not a common experience, it is not a singular one and it certainly did not contain itself in the 90s.
Other than that, this was a perfect book to me, and I will likely revisit it!
"It doesn't have to be everything about me, but it is not nothing, it never was."
July 7, 2024
DNF’d. I picked this up excited to read the memoir because of the tie ins with Plath, Lorde, etc. but it fell flat, was repetitive, and lacked a through line.
January 13, 2025
i’ve been waiting so long to read this book and i’m so glad it transcended my expectations.
this book is a blend between memoir and literary analysis regarding the depiction of “madwomen” and what it means to be a mentally ill person in a world you can’t fully connect with. i’ve dealt with mental illnesses since i was a young child, and particularly my ocd diagnosis has led me to rethink what it means to be “mad” or “crazy,” and how the world views you as such.
scanlon’s personal anecdotes about her life in a psychiatric facility in the 90s—her relationships with staff, viewing herself as a patient, discovering her bisexuality—blend incredibly smoothly with the more academic discussions on literature. i loved reading about how important books were during such a time in her life, as i can certainly relate. i find myself viewing this book similarly to some of the books she discusses in here.
tl;dr if you enjoyed “Girl, Interrupted” and wanted more, this is for you my friend
this book is a blend between memoir and literary analysis regarding the depiction of “madwomen” and what it means to be a mentally ill person in a world you can’t fully connect with. i’ve dealt with mental illnesses since i was a young child, and particularly my ocd diagnosis has led me to rethink what it means to be “mad” or “crazy,” and how the world views you as such.
scanlon’s personal anecdotes about her life in a psychiatric facility in the 90s—her relationships with staff, viewing herself as a patient, discovering her bisexuality—blend incredibly smoothly with the more academic discussions on literature. i loved reading about how important books were during such a time in her life, as i can certainly relate. i find myself viewing this book similarly to some of the books she discusses in here.
tl;dr if you enjoyed “Girl, Interrupted” and wanted more, this is for you my friend
October 18, 2024
I was excited for this book, but it fell flat for me. It was repetitive and the passages on women authors detracted from her story.
January 17, 2024
Part memoir, part literary critique on mental illness, and part ode to historical, iconic female writers that, arguably, saved the author and gave her purpose.
“This is what bothers me, the way people (and NAMI, The National Alliance on Mental Illness, doesn’t help) embrace diagnostic identities—for themselves or for their family members. However useful it may be, it is often another way to get stuck in a limiting story, someone else’s story.”
Scanlon uses this innovative and fascinating memoir to write about women and their “madness”. Women such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Shulamith Firestone, and more. Of course, the author also includes herself and her own madness alongside, often times using famous literary works that she loved by these “mad women” to help chronicle her life.
“I am writing about that space the writer occupies, that balance between sanity and insanity.”
Scanlon writes about her mother’s death at a young age, how it molded her, her half-hearted suicide attempt, and how she was then institutionalized. She reflects on her own life and poses questions about her mental illness and how women in history have been treated and viewed because of their madness. Throughout this book, we witness Scanlon grappling with what mental illness means and what a diagnosis means for an individual, which simultaneously challenges readers to question their own ideas and beliefs surrounding mental illness.
“What if, instead of being diagnosed—being called mentally ill—what if I had been able to receive care for its own sake. To be in distress, to ask for care, to receive it. What if there were space in this world for care.”
In ways, the writing could be perceived as messy because she quickly jumps from one thought to the next and it is far from chronological but somehow it really worked for me. I couldn’t stop reading it and I was hanging on to every last one of Scanlon’s words. The more I read, the better it got and the more I craved. It is blindingly clear that Scanlon is a great writer and I am happy to have discovered her and her work through this book. I guess you could say that I am ~crazy~ for this book. I am hopelessly, desperately in love with it.
“…and what is madness if not the horror of being misunderstood, of being unable to make a self comprehensible to another?”
Thank you to NetGalley for my digital copy. It’s not often that I browse the site for new books but that is how I found this one and I am so grateful for it. This memoir publishes 04/16/2024 and you should absolutely add it to your TBR.
“This is what bothers me, the way people (and NAMI, The National Alliance on Mental Illness, doesn’t help) embrace diagnostic identities—for themselves or for their family members. However useful it may be, it is often another way to get stuck in a limiting story, someone else’s story.”
Scanlon uses this innovative and fascinating memoir to write about women and their “madness”. Women such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Shulamith Firestone, and more. Of course, the author also includes herself and her own madness alongside, often times using famous literary works that she loved by these “mad women” to help chronicle her life.
“I am writing about that space the writer occupies, that balance between sanity and insanity.”
Scanlon writes about her mother’s death at a young age, how it molded her, her half-hearted suicide attempt, and how she was then institutionalized. She reflects on her own life and poses questions about her mental illness and how women in history have been treated and viewed because of their madness. Throughout this book, we witness Scanlon grappling with what mental illness means and what a diagnosis means for an individual, which simultaneously challenges readers to question their own ideas and beliefs surrounding mental illness.
“What if, instead of being diagnosed—being called mentally ill—what if I had been able to receive care for its own sake. To be in distress, to ask for care, to receive it. What if there were space in this world for care.”
In ways, the writing could be perceived as messy because she quickly jumps from one thought to the next and it is far from chronological but somehow it really worked for me. I couldn’t stop reading it and I was hanging on to every last one of Scanlon’s words. The more I read, the better it got and the more I craved. It is blindingly clear that Scanlon is a great writer and I am happy to have discovered her and her work through this book. I guess you could say that I am ~crazy~ for this book. I am hopelessly, desperately in love with it.
“…and what is madness if not the horror of being misunderstood, of being unable to make a self comprehensible to another?”
Thank you to NetGalley for my digital copy. It’s not often that I browse the site for new books but that is how I found this one and I am so grateful for it. This memoir publishes 04/16/2024 and you should absolutely add it to your TBR.
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November 1, 2023Her mother's early death deprived Suzanne Scanlon of the privilege of separation. Subsequent profound and unceasing sadness propelled her into a long stay in a psychiatric hospital where she found the time to read books that gave her understanding and life force. An intimate and deeply intelligent, soulful book that articulates the struggle to connect to the world.
November 6, 2024
i cried the whole time i read this - scanlon writes transparently on the dichotomy of mental illness.
i see this dichotomy as — that which is destructive, frightening and damaging can also (bizarrely) be the source of great comfort, safety and selfhood.
to wrestle with this understanding is one of the hardest and most difficult challenges a person can face.
i see this dichotomy as — that which is destructive, frightening and damaging can also (bizarrely) be the source of great comfort, safety and selfhood.
to wrestle with this understanding is one of the hardest and most difficult challenges a person can face.
December 22, 2024
doesn’t really read as a memoir— i don’t feel like i learned much about her experience or life. she tells her story of institutionalization/mental illness in the context of other books about that topic (plath, woolf, etc). instead of a memoir, id consider this more an analysis on female “hysteria” and mental institutions with lived experience tied in.
March 10, 2025
as someone who was certifiably cuckoo bananas when I was a teenager, this book meant the world to me
April 10, 2025
This book is a fascinating combo of the author’s personal experience and theory (sociology, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, feminism, all the good stuff). I loved it.
September 3, 2024
4,5*
‘Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen’ is a memoir about the experience of institutionalization, and how that experience extends after being discharged.
In a previous life I’ve studied Disability Studies, and although I don’t (want to) work in that field, I’m still very interested in books about mental illness, how it is experienced for the person itself and for outsiders, and how we care for people suffering from it.
This book was a heartfelt and honest personal journey, as well an interesting time document about mental institutions in the nineties.
I loved the construction of the book in fragments, but at times this caused a lack of focus. I believe more editing and deleting some scenes would’ve benefit the whole.
And then my favorite part: the parade of some of my favorite writers and books that represent mental health issues with crystal clarity: Virginia Woolf, The Bell Jar, The Yellow Wallpaper, Beloved, Audre Lorde and so on.
Really recommend this one!
<< By then, I had been in the hospital for months, since that night in March, They needed me to get better and instead I got better at being sick. I got better at being a mental patient. I got better at planning my death and better at speaking to psychiatrists. >>
‘Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen’ is a memoir about the experience of institutionalization, and how that experience extends after being discharged.
In a previous life I’ve studied Disability Studies, and although I don’t (want to) work in that field, I’m still very interested in books about mental illness, how it is experienced for the person itself and for outsiders, and how we care for people suffering from it.
This book was a heartfelt and honest personal journey, as well an interesting time document about mental institutions in the nineties.
I loved the construction of the book in fragments, but at times this caused a lack of focus. I believe more editing and deleting some scenes would’ve benefit the whole.
And then my favorite part: the parade of some of my favorite writers and books that represent mental health issues with crystal clarity: Virginia Woolf, The Bell Jar, The Yellow Wallpaper, Beloved, Audre Lorde and so on.
Really recommend this one!
<< By then, I had been in the hospital for months, since that night in March, They needed me to get better and instead I got better at being sick. I got better at being a mental patient. I got better at planning my death and better at speaking to psychiatrists. >>
January 15, 2025
Every once in a while, I find a book that helps me understand my life & the world and this is one of them
This book not only touches on what its really like to be institutionalized and lost as a young woman and how that shapes your identity but also how the author searched for meaning within works of other "madwomen" along with how we often dismiss women's stories... and I have never related more to any plot in a book
It touches on the stages of what the depths of depression are like, being stuck in the identity of your illness, grief for time lost and rebuilding yourself with the help of seeing the world through words
So if you couldn't tell already I love this book !!!
This book not only touches on what its really like to be institutionalized and lost as a young woman and how that shapes your identity but also how the author searched for meaning within works of other "madwomen" along with how we often dismiss women's stories... and I have never related more to any plot in a book
It touches on the stages of what the depths of depression are like, being stuck in the identity of your illness, grief for time lost and rebuilding yourself with the help of seeing the world through words
So if you couldn't tell already I love this book !!!
July 3, 2024
This memoir made me examine what I know about the intersection of mental health and feminism and womanhood. there were a lot of times that made me go Wow.
“What if, instead of being diagnosed—being called mentally ill—what if I had been able to receive care for its own sake. To be in distress, to ask for care, to receive it. What if there were space in this world for care.”
“What if, instead of being diagnosed—being called mentally ill—what if I had been able to receive care for its own sake. To be in distress, to ask for care, to receive it. What if there were space in this world for care.”
June 23, 2024
Almost DNFed so many times but I was too far in to quit
January 3, 2025
sie gab uns sylvia plath marguerite duras und girl interrupted madness und institutionalisation, aber auf dem realsten vibe ever. die akademik und der neoliberalismus trennen den mensch (vor allem frauen und poc) komplett von psychischen krankheiten ab --- muss man sie dann auch noch von der gesellschaft, kultur und literatur abgrenzen?
sogar als mental sehr stabile person kann einem das buch zu nahe kommen, ich hab so viel zu sagen aber auf jeden fall hervorragend !!!!
"where would i be without these women with messed-up lives (...) what is madness if not the horror of being misunderstood, of being unable to make a self comprehensible to another ?"
sogar als mental sehr stabile person kann einem das buch zu nahe kommen, ich hab so viel zu sagen aber auf jeden fall hervorragend !!!!
"where would i be without these women with messed-up lives (...) what is madness if not the horror of being misunderstood, of being unable to make a self comprehensible to another ?"
June 9, 2025
If you read The Bell Jar at 19 and had a visceral reaction and couldn’t get out of bed after you finished it, you should read this.
I wish the author had fleshed out some of her points around privilege, over-medication, and motherhood a bit more, but overall found the book really interesting and insightful!
I wish the author had fleshed out some of her points around privilege, over-medication, and motherhood a bit more, but overall found the book really interesting and insightful!
September 10, 2024
I’d do anything to just sit in a room with Scanlon, and Gabbert, and Heti, and Manguso, and Biggs! Is that too much to ask?!?
Read
September 15, 2024wow. thank you netgalley and vintage for the digital arc, i fear this book changed me <3
committed: on meaning and madwomen details suzanne scanlon's experience in and out of psychiatric treatment, most heavily focusing on her almost three years in the New York State Psychiatric Institute. while navigating the grief she experiences after the death of her mother and her worsening mental state, suzanne finds solace in the suffering of the literary figures who came before her.
the way scanlon weaves her own personal experience with the experience of the "madwomen" whose writing shaped her is so brilliant to me, and i think it is something to which a lot of readers can relate. mental illness can feel so isolating, and oftentimes we (i'm speaking for all of us, it's my review so i can do that) can only identify ourselves in the writing of those who suffered through it all first. so many of my reviews are just "this author put words to feelings i could never articulate," and this book is just that sentiment over and over again.
to be clear: this is not an easy read. please proceed with caution. scanlon is asking a lot of the reader, but not necessarily in a bad way (i actually think more authors should be asking more of their readers, not everything needs to be an easy read, but that's a convo for a different day lol). there is no hand-holding here. it's painful and it sucks and unfortunately that is just how it has to be. i left this book feeling like i needed to get a therapist, so you know...just be ready for that! i also left this book with a list of authors to check out and books to read so that balances out, right?
mostly, i am just glad this book exists. i read it over several bus rides, and i feel like a more dedicated reading experience would better serve the book's intentions (or make my mental health worse...only one way to find out lol).
committed: on meaning and madwomen details suzanne scanlon's experience in and out of psychiatric treatment, most heavily focusing on her almost three years in the New York State Psychiatric Institute. while navigating the grief she experiences after the death of her mother and her worsening mental state, suzanne finds solace in the suffering of the literary figures who came before her.
the way scanlon weaves her own personal experience with the experience of the "madwomen" whose writing shaped her is so brilliant to me, and i think it is something to which a lot of readers can relate. mental illness can feel so isolating, and oftentimes we (i'm speaking for all of us, it's my review so i can do that) can only identify ourselves in the writing of those who suffered through it all first. so many of my reviews are just "this author put words to feelings i could never articulate," and this book is just that sentiment over and over again.
to be clear: this is not an easy read. please proceed with caution. scanlon is asking a lot of the reader, but not necessarily in a bad way (i actually think more authors should be asking more of their readers, not everything needs to be an easy read, but that's a convo for a different day lol). there is no hand-holding here. it's painful and it sucks and unfortunately that is just how it has to be. i left this book feeling like i needed to get a therapist, so you know...just be ready for that! i also left this book with a list of authors to check out and books to read so that balances out, right?
mostly, i am just glad this book exists. i read it over several bus rides, and i feel like a more dedicated reading experience would better serve the book's intentions (or make my mental health worse...only one way to find out lol).
February 16, 2024
5 stars
There is so much to dislike about the world and about the generally terrible treatment of various populations (including but not limited to women and those experiencing mental health crises), but there is a lot to like about this memoir/missive.
Scanlon takes readers through some of the early challenges, mainly the loss of her mother, that shaped her young existence and landed her ultimately in a mental health facility at a pivotal time. While Scanlon's experiences are gripping and heartrending on their own, what she makes of her path through later reflection is even more fascinating.
Reading widely provided Scanlon with great incoming knowledge of the treatment of women and their mental health in literature, but her own encounters caused Scanlon to see a deeper value in this literature and to see herself in a different way, too. For me, this is the unexpected highlight of the book: Scanlon's dissection of how literature provides windows and mirrors for readers and allows us to build empathy for others and more grace for ourselves. Anyone who has experience with mental illness, the various identities discussed here, and even the sense that they've better understood some aspect of the world or themselves through reading will find this book even more powerful than they may have expected at first blush.
By its nature, some of this content will be too much for certain audiences. Those who can manage the content safely will find this piece extraordinarily resonant. I'll be recommending it mindfully and enthusiastically.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Vintage for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
There is so much to dislike about the world and about the generally terrible treatment of various populations (including but not limited to women and those experiencing mental health crises), but there is a lot to like about this memoir/missive.
Scanlon takes readers through some of the early challenges, mainly the loss of her mother, that shaped her young existence and landed her ultimately in a mental health facility at a pivotal time. While Scanlon's experiences are gripping and heartrending on their own, what she makes of her path through later reflection is even more fascinating.
Reading widely provided Scanlon with great incoming knowledge of the treatment of women and their mental health in literature, but her own encounters caused Scanlon to see a deeper value in this literature and to see herself in a different way, too. For me, this is the unexpected highlight of the book: Scanlon's dissection of how literature provides windows and mirrors for readers and allows us to build empathy for others and more grace for ourselves. Anyone who has experience with mental illness, the various identities discussed here, and even the sense that they've better understood some aspect of the world or themselves through reading will find this book even more powerful than they may have expected at first blush.
By its nature, some of this content will be too much for certain audiences. Those who can manage the content safely will find this piece extraordinarily resonant. I'll be recommending it mindfully and enthusiastically.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Vintage for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
July 20, 2025
i waffled between a 3 and a 4 for this one, but ultimately i think it fell a little flat. choosing to tackle such a massive topic meant that the author dabbled but didn’t dive thoroughly into anything - not the institution of the hospital, not her literature review of women + madness, and not her own experience of mental illness. effort was made, but i felt dissatisfied with what felt like no more than musings by the end.
at the end of the day, however, it is of course Suzy’s memoir and she has every right to wander through her own mind in whatever way she feels like it! i’m grateful for the insights i did glean.
at the end of the day, however, it is of course Suzy’s memoir and she has every right to wander through her own mind in whatever way she feels like it! i’m grateful for the insights i did glean.
May 19, 2024
No words! Just the awe of seeing your most inner thoughts reflected back to you.
Scanlon does so much in 350 pages. Her personal tragedies, the history of women institutionalized and “crazy” women artists. Her long-term institutionalization during college at the end of the era of long-term psychiatric care. The performance of “sickness” and how you choose to live
“We felt helpless, and yet this wasn't linked to the growing inequality and social isolation of the 1980s postwelfare state. The aggressive backlash to the gains of feminism and the civil rights movements of the sixties. We needed help and felt shame for asking. We had failed in some sense of an American individualist imperative. We had an obligation to recover. The narrative of progression. This was not only for the medical-pharmaceutical establishment which required our before and after stories, but also for a culture that locates mental illness in the self and not the society. If it doesn't quite work this way, there was no acknowledgment of that. There weren't stories of the ones who don't recover, or get better and worse over and over again.”
Scanlon does so much in 350 pages. Her personal tragedies, the history of women institutionalized and “crazy” women artists. Her long-term institutionalization during college at the end of the era of long-term psychiatric care. The performance of “sickness” and how you choose to live
“We felt helpless, and yet this wasn't linked to the growing inequality and social isolation of the 1980s postwelfare state. The aggressive backlash to the gains of feminism and the civil rights movements of the sixties. We needed help and felt shame for asking. We had failed in some sense of an American individualist imperative. We had an obligation to recover. The narrative of progression. This was not only for the medical-pharmaceutical establishment which required our before and after stories, but also for a culture that locates mental illness in the self and not the society. If it doesn't quite work this way, there was no acknowledgment of that. There weren't stories of the ones who don't recover, or get better and worse over and over again.”
January 20, 2025
This would have been a five star for me but the writing style was a bit unsettling, along with the lack of proper grammar and punctuation.
“I am trying to address an abyss of sorrow, a noncommunicable grief that at times, and often on a long-term basis, lays claims upon us to the extent of having us lose all interest in words, actions, and even life itself.”
“I wanted to die but not enough to actually kill myself but enough to sign myself into a hospital where I’d remain for years. Sick enough to believe that this place, these doctors, the institution itself, could help me. Give me instructions. Sick enough to stay so long without objection so that I couldn't imagine leaving so that I'd never really become a normal person again. Never really get that feeling of illness out of my system.”
“I am trying to address an abyss of sorrow, a noncommunicable grief that at times, and often on a long-term basis, lays claims upon us to the extent of having us lose all interest in words, actions, and even life itself.”
“I wanted to die but not enough to actually kill myself but enough to sign myself into a hospital where I’d remain for years. Sick enough to believe that this place, these doctors, the institution itself, could help me. Give me instructions. Sick enough to stay so long without objection so that I couldn't imagine leaving so that I'd never really become a normal person again. Never really get that feeling of illness out of my system.”
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