Demons in the Age of Light: A Memoir

by Whitney Robinson

Twenty-three-year-old Whitney Robinson tells the mesmerizing true story of her descent into mental illness soon after she arrived at college. Her doctor labels the illness schizophrenia, but Whitney feels that she became possessed by a seductive entity that attempted to influence her into harming herself and others.

Institutionalized and heavily medicated, Whitney encounters other mysteries and horrors within the walls of a psychiatric hospital. Determined to release herself from psychological shackles, Whitney confronts and expels her demon through sheer will and begins to cure her illness through alternative methods, including an attempted exorcism and shamanic healing.

Whitney's saga parallels current discussions in the media regarding the limitations of American psychiatry versus the possibilities of holistic and indigenous healing modalities which, according to a recent New York Times Magazine article "The Americanization of Mental Illness," have been revealed in some cases to be more effective than our country's use of drug-oriented solutions.

As she enters graduate school this year for creative writing, Whitney's remarkable story will serve as an inspiration for others on radio and television programs.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Psychology, Mental Illness

300 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2011

About the author

Whitney Robinson was born and home-schooled in a small Massachusetts town and spent much of her childhood running wild in the woods behind her family’s home. She later attended college at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. During her first semester she experienced a severe psychotic episode and was hospitalized repeatedly over the next two years. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia but found little relief in the standard pharmacological treatments that were offered and sometimes imposed on her. Against the prevailing belief that psychosis can only be treated with medication, Whitney decided to seek a drug-free path to recovery. This, too, provided no easy cure as Whitney sought answers from sources as diverse as Peruvian shamans, New-Age healers, and the Orthodox church of her childhood. Writing had always been one of the few activities that offered a temporary peace in her most difficult times, and she decided to write a book about her experience. Demons in the Age of Light: A Memoir of Psychosis and Recovery, will be published by Process Media in Fall 2011. Whitney is currently applying to graduate school and working on several novels. She spends much of her free time with her Appaloosa horse, Thor.

Reviews

[Anita Dalton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does not engage in the sort of celebration and art uber alles justifications for mental illness that I have encountered as of late. Whitney Robinson’s memoir gets everything right. She shows the wreckage. She shows how mental illness swooped down into her life and changed everything. A natural writer with a near-intimidating intelligence, Robinson tells the story of her illness, the demon that came into her brain, and how she came back out the other side. It is an erudite, honest, and at times darkly humorous look at what it feels like to have your brain behave in ways you have no control over. Schizophrenia is one of the hardest mental illnesses for people to truly understand, and Robinson writes a fascinating book that is never once a freak show. It is never an attempt to glorify conditions that can ransack a person’s life. This book is never a voyeuristic peephole into the at times salacious subject matter of mental illness.

It is a rare invitation to understand.





http://ireadoddbooks.com/demons-in-th...

[Leah Hess Windnagle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel immediately caught my attention as a memoir. The author is my age and is experiencing John Nash symptoms. I believe she's probably as smart as he is, too. The moment I started reading, I knew I could not put the book down. Robinson writes in such a descriptive, dramatic tone that I couldn't help but get sucked into the novel. There were several parts where, in spite of the schizophrenic situations, the author's descriptions made me laugh. The novel was so raw. Robinson opens up completely to her readers, confessing her most embarrassing and intimate situations. She reflects on the past and analyzes her future.

I don't even think my review could do this novel justice. All you need to know is that you need to buy/borrow this book now. Set aside 4 hours to read it. Enjoy. You won't regret it.

For a more thorough review, please visit my blog at http://leahslitandcoffee.blogspot.com...

I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads Program.

[Louhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was recommended this by a friend and I am glad I read it. It was quite familiar to me, and while many of the experiences in this memoir were different from mine (me being another person with a schizoaffective disorder), the way she described and understood them was one of the most interesting ways I’ve heard it described. It articulated a great many experiences very believably. I also really enjoyed the vividness of the prose, the visceral descriptions of both the hallucinatory and compulsive experiences and the emotions and metaphors in trying to get them across.