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Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education
Read the #1 Amazon bestseller that tackles mental illness and disability with a “refreshing and raw honesty.”
Early in her career, Katie Pryal learned that being a professor isn’t easy if your brain isn’t quite right.
“I was a junior in college when I finally realized that I was different in a way that my medically inclined parents would call ‘clinical.’”
In these deeply personal, fiery essays, Pryal tells her story of transformation that began the moment she chose to publicly disclose her own mental illness and leave her career in higher education to begin fighting for a better world for people with psychiatric disabilities. The stories she tells are the fear of stigma, the fight for accommodations, and the raw reality of living with mental illness in a world that pushes mental health to the margins.
People carelessly call each other “schizo” and “bipolar.” A colleague is fired for “instability.” Pryal learned that, as a psychiatrically disabled person working in higher education, her very livelihood could be stripped away by the groundless suspicions of others.
But the problem persists beyond academia.
With candor and grace, these essays discuss the disclosure of disabilities, accommodations and accessibility, how to be a good abled friend to a disabled person, the trigger warnings debate, and more. While harrowing at times, Pryal’s story is ultimately one of hope. With this memoir, she aims to make higher education—and all of our society—more humane.
“Pryal writes with a refreshing and raw honesty. ... A must-read, not just for those in academia.” -Booktrib Magazine
"If you want to understand how higher education is built, and not built, for people with disabilities—especially mental health–related ones—Pryal’s book is for you." -Book Riot
Early in her career, Katie Pryal learned that being a professor isn’t easy if your brain isn’t quite right.
“I was a junior in college when I finally realized that I was different in a way that my medically inclined parents would call ‘clinical.’”
In these deeply personal, fiery essays, Pryal tells her story of transformation that began the moment she chose to publicly disclose her own mental illness and leave her career in higher education to begin fighting for a better world for people with psychiatric disabilities. The stories she tells are the fear of stigma, the fight for accommodations, and the raw reality of living with mental illness in a world that pushes mental health to the margins.
People carelessly call each other “schizo” and “bipolar.” A colleague is fired for “instability.” Pryal learned that, as a psychiatrically disabled person working in higher education, her very livelihood could be stripped away by the groundless suspicions of others.
But the problem persists beyond academia.
With candor and grace, these essays discuss the disclosure of disabilities, accommodations and accessibility, how to be a good abled friend to a disabled person, the trigger warnings debate, and more. While harrowing at times, Pryal’s story is ultimately one of hope. With this memoir, she aims to make higher education—and all of our society—more humane.
“Pryal writes with a refreshing and raw honesty. ... A must-read, not just for those in academia.” -Booktrib Magazine
"If you want to understand how higher education is built, and not built, for people with disabilities—especially mental health–related ones—Pryal’s book is for you." -Book Riot
210 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 24, 2018
60 people are currently reading
1015 people want to read
About the author
Katie Rose Guest Pryal
34 books136 followersKatie Rose Guest Pryal, J.D., Ph.D., is a bipolar-autistic author, keynote speaker, neurodiversity-affirming writing coach, and expert in mental health and neurodiversity. Before turning to writing full time, she worked as a university professor with a research focus in disability studies.
She is the author of many books on mental health and neurodiversity, including:
Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider's Companion to Parenting Neurodiverse Children (Johns Hopkins 2025)
A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education (Univ. of Kansas Press 2024), winner of the 2024 IPPY Bronze medal in Education
Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (Blue Osprey Books 2017, Blackstone Audio 2022)
Even If You’re Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health (Blue Osprey Books 2019, revised and expanded edition 2023), winner of the IPPY Gold Medal in women's issues.
Her newest nonfiction book is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press, Navigating Neurodiverse Pregnancy.
Her fiction includes the Hollywood Lights series of standalone linked novels:
Entanglement
Chasing Chaos
Fallout Girl
Take Your Charming Somewhere Else, Winner of the IPPY Gold Medal for Romance
Dr. Pryal attended Duke University for her undergraduate studies before earning her master’s degree in creative writing from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, where she attended on a fellowship. She then earned her law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and continued on to a federal clerkship. While practicing law, she earned her doctorate in rhetoric from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she attended on a fellowship. After finishing her studies, she began her full-time teaching career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she remains adjunct faculty.
She writes frequently for national publications, is a columnist for Psychology Today, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. For keynote talks, she is represented by BrightSight Speakers.
Dr. Pryal’s first name is Katie Rose; her middle name is Guest; and her last name is Pryal (which rhymes with “trial”). Her pronouns are she/her.
She is the author of many books on mental health and neurodiversity, including:
Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider's Companion to Parenting Neurodiverse Children (Johns Hopkins 2025)
A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education (Univ. of Kansas Press 2024), winner of the 2024 IPPY Bronze medal in Education
Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (Blue Osprey Books 2017, Blackstone Audio 2022)
Even If You’re Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health (Blue Osprey Books 2019, revised and expanded edition 2023), winner of the IPPY Gold Medal in women's issues.
Her newest nonfiction book is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press, Navigating Neurodiverse Pregnancy.
Her fiction includes the Hollywood Lights series of standalone linked novels:
Entanglement
Chasing Chaos
Fallout Girl
Take Your Charming Somewhere Else, Winner of the IPPY Gold Medal for Romance
Dr. Pryal attended Duke University for her undergraduate studies before earning her master’s degree in creative writing from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, where she attended on a fellowship. She then earned her law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and continued on to a federal clerkship. While practicing law, she earned her doctorate in rhetoric from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she attended on a fellowship. After finishing her studies, she began her full-time teaching career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she remains adjunct faculty.
She writes frequently for national publications, is a columnist for Psychology Today, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. For keynote talks, she is represented by BrightSight Speakers.
Dr. Pryal’s first name is Katie Rose; her middle name is Guest; and her last name is Pryal (which rhymes with “trial”). Her pronouns are she/her.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 27, 2021
3.5 stars. I enjoyed this collection of essays as easy-to-read jumping off points for further thought. It is definitely a mix of discussions of disability and mental health, a mix of educational advice and raw emotion—it jumps around a bit. I did appreciate that it centered the stories and perspectives of disabled faculty since, as the author points out, we are more inclined to focus on students. This is a necessary perspective I haven’t found elsewhere. The focus was often narrow (psychiatric disability, understandable given the author’s background) and I wish it included more from other types of disabilities. I think it needed more connection between chapters and a stronger conclusion—it was very apparent these were originally discrete essays. I don’t know if I would recommend it as an introduction to this topic for that reason; it might be disjointed if you aren’t already a little familiar
June 23, 2020
This is a quick read of a book - a series of excellent essays on mental health and disability in higher ed. If I had one complaint it's that I could have read so many more of these essays - I wished the book were longer! But the essays that are included are rich with detail, careful thought, and clear lines of what is just and unjust. I saw myself in many of the things Pryal writes about, and my students in others, and overall I loved the vision of a better higher ed. system that's at the heart of the book. Very thought-provoking.
March 17, 2022
When I picked this book up, I mistakenly expected it to focus on the experience of students with mental illness in higher education. Instead, it started with the experience of faculty with mental illness, and branched out widely from there. There is a lot to be commended in this book: emphasizing that making life easier for persons with physical or mental disabilities is not "special treatment" but rather what a compassionate society does; advocating for universal design, which benefits everyone, not just persons with disabilities; advice on how to respond to a student or colleague who reveals a "hidden" disability; a good discussion of the costs and consequences of asking for accommodation for a mental disability.
There are some elements of her approach that I found lacking. She writes as though the presence of a mental illness is something that can be validated without question, and reliably managed with treatment. The reality is that diagnoses are murky, uncertain, and changeable. Treatments are very effective for some conditions, and not very effective at all for other conditions. The dividing line between experiencing stress and grief from difficult life experiences, and having a condition marked off as a mental illness, is often not clear at all, either at the time or in retrospect; she tacitly seems to acknowledge this in a chapter about how to address grief in others.
She spends energy on language (ableist, neurodivergent, parsing the difference between accommodation (bad) and accessibility (good)) in the service of trying to get us to look at disability differently, but I find the tactic of using unfamiliar and uncommon terms unhelpful and unconvincing. I also groaned at her advice about printing out her PowerPoint slides for her lectures ahead of time; there are much better ways to engage an audience and transmit information (see everything written by Edward Tufte, but particularly "The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint.") Despite these criticisms, I learned from this book and recommend it for anyone interested in mental health and disability in higher education.
There are some elements of her approach that I found lacking. She writes as though the presence of a mental illness is something that can be validated without question, and reliably managed with treatment. The reality is that diagnoses are murky, uncertain, and changeable. Treatments are very effective for some conditions, and not very effective at all for other conditions. The dividing line between experiencing stress and grief from difficult life experiences, and having a condition marked off as a mental illness, is often not clear at all, either at the time or in retrospect; she tacitly seems to acknowledge this in a chapter about how to address grief in others.
She spends energy on language (ableist, neurodivergent, parsing the difference between accommodation (bad) and accessibility (good)) in the service of trying to get us to look at disability differently, but I find the tactic of using unfamiliar and uncommon terms unhelpful and unconvincing. I also groaned at her advice about printing out her PowerPoint slides for her lectures ahead of time; there are much better ways to engage an audience and transmit information (see everything written by Edward Tufte, but particularly "The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint.") Despite these criticisms, I learned from this book and recommend it for anyone interested in mental health and disability in higher education.
November 5, 2017
Covering everything from the tenuous, terrifying tightrope walk of adjuncting-while-disabled to practical advice for classroom accessibility, Dr. Pryal not only dismantles academic ableism; she makes the case for how accessibility benefits everyone. An essential resource for anyone in academia or anyone interested in mental health, disability, and accessibility. I will be recommending it widely.
August 17, 2025
no data
no research
no facts
no way of diagnosis
just ranting
no research
no facts
no way of diagnosis
just ranting
December 19, 2018
Wow. The subtitle might be "Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education," but the implications and knowledge reach far beyond higher ed. If you work with ANY HUMANS, there is something in this book for you. The chapters at the end on parenting sealed this for me as one of the best I've read this year.
March 18, 2019
The opening of Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (Raven Books) says, “This is a book about mental illness and academia. But this is also a book about so much more than that: it’s about grief and friendship, and collegiality, and accessibility, and tragedy.” Never has an opening line encapsulated a book so perfectly.
Katie Rose Pryal’s book was eye-opening. She has included a handy guide to vocabulary and as someone who is “normate,” many of the experiences detailed in Pryal’s essays were not anything I’d ever experienced firsthand.
The words in Pryal’s collection will echo in my memory for a long time. Particularly, the essay on “ostriching” and talking around other people’s pain, or pretending it doesn’t exist. Pryal’s words about speaking plainly in the face of tragedy hit home. In the face of tragedy, people don’t know what to say, so they often choose to say nothing. That ‘nothing’ is isolating and lonely and makes the person suffering feel invisible.
Pryal writes with refreshing and raw honesty. She gently reminds us that a truly compassionate and caring society does not come about by simply clearing the lowest legal bar set in both academia and industry. That disabled persons, particularly those with invisible disabilities such as mental illnesses, need more than the lip service so often delivered in an attempt to be “inclusive.” That real inclusivity is listening, understanding, and sometimes feels uncomfortable or difficult.
Pryal encourages all of us to rethink our views on mental health, stereotypes, and what accessibility truly means. The essays enclosed in this book expose prejudice and lack of awareness regarding mental health and disability. She draws on her own experience, extensive reading and studies on mental health, and essays written by others to illustrate her points.
The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/03/tall-pop...
Katie Rose Pryal’s book was eye-opening. She has included a handy guide to vocabulary and as someone who is “normate,” many of the experiences detailed in Pryal’s essays were not anything I’d ever experienced firsthand.
The words in Pryal’s collection will echo in my memory for a long time. Particularly, the essay on “ostriching” and talking around other people’s pain, or pretending it doesn’t exist. Pryal’s words about speaking plainly in the face of tragedy hit home. In the face of tragedy, people don’t know what to say, so they often choose to say nothing. That ‘nothing’ is isolating and lonely and makes the person suffering feel invisible.
Pryal writes with refreshing and raw honesty. She gently reminds us that a truly compassionate and caring society does not come about by simply clearing the lowest legal bar set in both academia and industry. That disabled persons, particularly those with invisible disabilities such as mental illnesses, need more than the lip service so often delivered in an attempt to be “inclusive.” That real inclusivity is listening, understanding, and sometimes feels uncomfortable or difficult.
Pryal encourages all of us to rethink our views on mental health, stereotypes, and what accessibility truly means. The essays enclosed in this book expose prejudice and lack of awareness regarding mental health and disability. She draws on her own experience, extensive reading and studies on mental health, and essays written by others to illustrate her points.
The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/03/tall-pop...
November 1, 2017
Life of the Mind Interrupted is a great resource for anyone -- and not just professors -- who wants to know and learn more about disability in higher education -- or really, anywhere. Pryal's collection of essays, originally published in popular outlets like Chronicle Vitae and Dame Magazine, is an excellent guide to the ways in which we can rethink our language, positions, and policies regarding disabled persons, particularly those with invisible and / or psychiatric disabilities, in professional spaces. Drawing on her own experiences, interviews, and research, Pryal reorients discussions of accommodations toward accessibility and encourages a critical reassessment of thoughts, language, and actions that harm disabled students and professionals. Above all, Pryal's collection reminds us that to act compassionately does not equal "making space" for disabled persons or merely reaching legal levels of compliance. It means truly listening to -- and believing -- our disabled students and colleagues, creating spaces in our classrooms and at our conferences accessible to many, and challenging stigma and prejudice that make disclosure (especially for those with invisible and psychiatric disabilities) difficult and painful.
June 15, 2022
The good: written from personal experience, I found the sections on disclosure and teaching especially relatable / helpful. It's also written in a really accessible and engaging way.
The less good: this is just personal preference, but I prefer things grounded in structural analysis and theory and there's basically none of that here. There are interviews with other disabled academics, but I wanted a bit more to contextualize how the perspectives of someone who is straight, white, married might be really different than someone in other social categories. Again, I wouldn't say that this is bad, but it's something I was really conscious of while reading and made the whole thing feel more like a memoir than I was expecting.
The less good: this is just personal preference, but I prefer things grounded in structural analysis and theory and there's basically none of that here. There are interviews with other disabled academics, but I wanted a bit more to contextualize how the perspectives of someone who is straight, white, married might be really different than someone in other social categories. Again, I wouldn't say that this is bad, but it's something I was really conscious of while reading and made the whole thing feel more like a memoir than I was expecting.
August 5, 2023
I did not enjoy the writing style, it would have been served well with heavier editing to provide a cohesive narrative and less repetition. The first third of the book was insightful but I don’t recommend beyond that.
March 18, 2019
Review to follow
July 24, 2019
I would have liked to have seen a little more transition from chapter to chapter. Content was good though
March 23, 2020
This book brings up good questions, concerns and ideas. The author is very honest in this boook.
February 18, 2023
A strong collection of incisive essays.
March 27, 2023
If you want to read a really lovely little book of essays about what it is like to have an invisible disability in academia, then read Pryal's book.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews