The Gordian Knot of Mental Illness (Rachel Aviv)

Pulling The Thread with Elise Loehnen

Elise Loehnen

Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 900 Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“I think what one of the things that's interesting to me is like when we think about what causes distress and a life that goes awry, there's so much attention to different causes, but the way that the story, or the diagnosis, or the treatment interacts with our identity, I think, is not thought about as much. Like, the way that the very intervention itself changes our sense of who we are feels like it gets neglected. There's this sense that, you know, the diagnosis is describing something that is always solid and real and less thought given to like, well, how does that diagnosis interact with a mind? And how does the mind change knowing that the mind has been characterized this way?” You might recognize Rachel Aviv’s name from The New Yorker, where she’s been a staff writer for a decade, covering subjects like medical ethics, psychiatry, criminal justice, and education. She’s been a finalist for the National Magazine Awards twice, and in 2022 she won one for profile writing. In 2022, she also published Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us, a recipient of the Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and named by The New York Times as one of the ten best books of the year. In It, Aviv tells the story of four people and the treatment they underwent—or not—for their mental illness. It’s a gorgeously told, layered exploration of all that we don’t know about the brain and the mind, and how various treatment modalities restructure our lives—including the stories we tell about who we are. Okay, let’s get to our conversation. MORE FROM RACHEL AVIV: Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us Read Rachel in The New Yorker Follow Rachel on X To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Elise Lunan, host of Pulling the Thread. Today I'm joined by the brilliant Rachel Aviv,
0:06.8	author of the award-winning Strangers to Ourselves. Hi, friends, throughout this holiday season,
0:12.7	you will find me right here per normal. We will keep publishing new episodes every week,
0:19.7	and a few solos thrown in as well.
0:23.1	So when you just need to escape from the business of the holiday shuffle or take a break from mom or dad or who knows who, we'll be here as we always are. Hi, it's Elise Lunan, host of Pulling the Thread.
0:46.3	On this show, we pull apart the web in which we all live to understand who we are and why we're here.
0:52.9	Pulling the thread is about big questions, why we do
0:56.0	what we do, how we can understand our own experiences within a larger spiritual and historical
1:00.8	context, the ways in which we might begin to understand ourselves and each other better, and what's
1:06.3	required to heal ourselves and our world. I'll be joined in conversation by luminaries and wise elders,
1:12.9	those who have laid tracks in their work and lives to help us bring meaning and understanding
1:16.9	to a world that often feels chaotic and overwhelming. My hope is that these conversations
1:22.4	spark moments of resonance and plant tiny seeds of awareness so that we might all collectively learn and grow.
1:31.0	I think what one of the things that's interesting to me is like when we think about what
1:36.8	causes distress and a life that goes awry, there's so much attention to different causes, but
1:43.3	the way that the story or the diagnosis
1:47.0	or the treatment interacts with our identity, I think is not thought about as much, like the way
1:53.0	that the very intervention itself changes our sense of who we are, feels like it gets neglected.
2:00.0	There's this sense that, you know, the diagnosis is describing something that is always
2:04.3	solid and real and less thought given to like, well, how does that diagnosis interact with
2:11.4	a mind and how does the mind change knowing that the mind has been characterized this way.
2:18.5	You might recognize Rachel Levid's name from The New Yorker, where she's been a staff
	...

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