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Academia and Mental Illness: A Preliminary List of Resources

By Karen Kelsky | February 13, 2013

This week I received an email from a reader who had recently been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.  She was asking for resources I might know of to help her navigate her Ph.D. program in light of her mental illness.  I didn’t know of any, so I put out a request on Facebook and Twitter.  The response was instantaneous and big.

I compiled all the recommendations into the following list. As you can see I just cut and pasted directly from the comments on Twitter and Facebook, without elaboration.  They are in no particular order, and I have not yet read most of these and can’t vouch for them.  But many responders also asked to be sent any list of resources I might develop, and I wanted to share the list for the benefit of those who asked.  It seems clear to me that this topic is close to the heart of many.

(I don’t know why some of the links ended up not live, but if you cut and paste them as a new url they do work).

I would like to solicit guest posts on the general theme of mental illness in the academy, and ways that people have coped with it, and challenges that they have encountered. If you are interested in writing one, anonymously or not, please get in touch with me at gettenure@gmail.com.  Also email me if you know of other resources to add to this list.

Academia and Mental Illness Resources

Dimitri Mihalas is an astrophysicist who has written fairly extensively about his experience with bipolar disorder.

Elyn R. Saks.  http://prospect.org/article/professors-story;

http://chronicle.com/article/Mental-Illness-in-Academe/49233/

http://www.amazon.com/The-Center-Cannot-Hold-Journey/dp/140130138X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360609079&sr=8-1&keywords=elyn+saks

http://www.ted.com/talks/elyn_saks_seeing_mental_illness.html

Monica Coleman:  http://monicaacoleman.com/   http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2012/01/11/essay-dealing-depression-while-tenure-track

Anne Cvetkovich: Depression: A Public Feeling

Barbara Jago “Chronicling an Academic Depression.”  Autoethnography.  http://www.polkfolk.com/docs/Writing/Jago.pdf

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison.  Also, Touched With Fire.

“An Inappropriate Illness” by Mark Grimsley.  Deals with Acute Mania and Bipolar Disorder.  http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/09/26/grimsley

Melonie Fullick: http://www.universityaffairs.ca/speculative-diction/my-grief-lies-all-within-phd-students-depression-attrition/

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/speculative-diction/student-mental-health-problems-are-real-problems/

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/speculative-diction/phd-education-and-mental-health-a-follow-up/

Margaret Price.  Mad At School. http://www.press.umich.edu/1612837/mad_at_school

Melody Moezzi is a lawyer/activist who writes for Bipolar Monthly on her experience with Bipolar Disorder; I’m not sure it’s helpful in terms of specifically an academic context, but in terms of her professional life and her background as an Iranian-American I think it’s useful. http://www.amazon.com/Haldol-Hyacinths-A-Bipolar-Life/dp/1583334688

John W. Belcher.  A tenured physics professor, on his 20-year struggle with depression. http://tech.mit.edu/V133/N13/belcherdepression.html

Susan Cannon Harris. http://seventysixthminute.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-value-of-humanities-major-or-how.html?spref=fb

Katie Pryal. Many excellent Vitae columns on mental illness in the academy; start with Disclosure Blues: Should You Tell Your Colleagues about Your Mental Illness?

Gerda Saunders.  My Dementia: Telling Who I Am Before I Forget.  From Slate.

Robert Corrington “Riding the Windhorse” http://www.amazon.com/Riding-Windhorse-Manic-Depressive-Disorder-Wholeness/dp/076182619X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360622600&sr=1-3&keywords=robert+corrington

Keguro Macharia, a Kenyan scholar who quit his tenure track position, on racism and depression.   http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/on-quitting/

Tasha Golden.  Creativity is Neither Magic Nor Madness.  On depression and creativity, from the world of creative writing.  On Ploughshares.

Emily Martin on Bipolar Disorder.  http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8502.html (this seems to be a study of Bipolar Disorder in American culture in general.)

Esme Weijun Wang on Bipolar Disorder during her time at Yale. http://esmewang.com/2011/02/why-i-left-yale-mental-illness-higher-education/

Karen Nakamura A Disability of the Soul: An Ethnography of Schizophrenia and Mental Illness in Contemporary Japan.  (a study of Japan, but includes discussion of the author’s experience of depression).

Lisa T. McElroy.  A law professor writes of life in academia with a severe anxiety disorder.

Rich McLean, on living with schizophrenia.

General Blogs

DoubleXScience blog: http://www.doublexscience.org/i-am-mental-illness-anorexia-biting-back/

http://disabledphilosophers.wordpress.com/

http://depressedacademics.blogspot.com/

Various Articles

http://chronicle.com/article/In-Academe-Mental-Health/64246/

http://www.aaup.org/article/chronic-illness-and-academic-career#.UR

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/perils-perfectionism  Not sure this fits your request, but this article by is a powerful piece. Lots in the comments too.

On Imposter Syndrome: http://chronicle.com/article/An-Academic-With-Impostor/138231/

On Imposter Syndrome: see also the guest post on the topic on this Professor Is In site.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/mental-health-issues-among-graduate-students

http://chronicle.com/article/Grad-School-Blues/29566

http://chronicle.com/article/Addicted-in-Academe/32902

Similar Posts:

  • Bipolar and Academia (A Guest Post)
  • Managing Mental Illness in Graduate School: Some Recommendations (A Guest Post)
  • Emotions in Academia: Sadness
  • Postpartum Depression: On Motherhood, Academia, and Mental Health (A Guest Post)
  • Recovery From Addiction and the Road to Academia (A Guest Post)

Filed Under: Mental Health and Academia, Strategizing Your Success in Academia

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. karen says

    February 23, 2013 at 6:46 pm

    Karen Nakamura (moi)’s new book is in schizophrenia and mental illness in Japan and talks about some of her own experience with depression.

    Reply
    • Karen says

      February 24, 2013 at 10:54 am

      thanks, Karen!

      Reply
  2. Shyane Siriwardena says

    April 7, 2013 at 11:46 am

    This is a brilliant list! Thanks so much for compiling and sharing it. I’m just starting a similar blog of my own (that is, one on the topic of mental health and academia) so I’m terribly glad I found this. I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me now!

    Reply
    • Karen says

      April 7, 2013 at 1:35 pm

      Thanks! Good luck with your blog!

      Reply
  3. aggint99 says

    April 11, 2013 at 9:58 pm

    I am so excited about this string of posts, I haven’t even read most of them yet, but want to say I am very very grateful to see someone writing about. I was diagnosed with bipolar 20 years ago and have been struggling to reconcile it with academia for many, many years with limited success. I will read more and post again.

    Reply
  4. GeorgeOnline says

    January 30, 2014 at 3:20 pm

    This is a great and needed list. My suggested additions:

    “Accommodating Faculty Members Who Have Disabilities,” a report from the AAUP:
    http://www.aaup.org/file/Accomodating-faculty-with-Disabilities.pdf

    “”Disability Studies, the MLA, and the AAUP Report ‘Accommodating Faculty Members Who Have Disabilities,'” a Storify from #mla13
    http://storify.com/GeorgeOnline/disability-studies-the-mla-and-the-aaup-report-ac

    “Faculty Members, Accom­modation, and Access in Higher Education,” a response to (and critique of) the AAUP Report, featuring Stephanie L. Kerschbaum, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Sushil K. Oswal, Amy Vidali, Susan Ghiaciuc, Margaret Price, Jay Dolmage, Craig A. Meyer, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, and Ellen Samuels:
    http://profession.commons.mla.org/2013/12/09/faculty-members-accommodation-and-access-in-higher-education/

    Michael Bérubé’s response to the above critiques of the AAUP Report:
    https://www.facebook.com/michael.berube.169/posts/446175488842318

    Reply
    • Karen says

      January 31, 2014 at 9:26 am

      Thanks. I saw this pop up on social media this week; helpful to have the links here.

      Reply
  5. A says

    September 13, 2016 at 6:44 pm

    A colleague is a very important resource and I came across this text with ways to be supportive.
    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/10/students-how-to-help-a-friend-with-mental-health-illness

    Reply

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