ABSTRACT
This anthology of literary jewels written by women who have experienced mental illness has two very important functions. The first is that it represents a way for these women to connect with others who can give the kind of support, affirmation, care, and strength that only another person who has experienced the same events can furnish. Women naturally turn to each other in the midst of their distress to share stories, to borrow strength, and to endow their situations with meaning. They give name to a suffering that too often remains unspoken in therapy. The understanding of certain experiences, such as the anguish of mental illness, can only be grasped fully by way of an inward appropriation of that experience. The language of the pieces in this collection has the power to awaken the total sensibility of professionals, students, and laypersons to new levels of consciousness.
