Book
How Language Holds
Schizophrenia Beyond Structure
Based on fifteen interviews with people diagnosed with schizophrenia, this book treats speech as an act rather than as clinical data. It asks what language is required to do when recognition is uncertain—and what becomes possible when someone listens.
“Most books about schizophrenia begin by explaining. This one begins by listening.”
What this book is about
The interviews are approached as acts of speech rather than symptoms. Language appears as survival—strategic, constrained, deliberate.
Creativity is treated as adaptive rather than expressive. The ethical centre of the book is listening.
Who this book is for (and not for)
- Readers interested in language and recognition
- Mental health practitioners seeking non-clinical insight
- Researchers drawn to listening-based analysis
- Those seeking diagnostic or treatment guidance
- Readers wanting narrative memoir
- Those expecting resolution or explanation
Inside the book
- Introduction — Staying With What Is Said
- Eight thematic chapters
- Ethics-led interpretive stance
Excerpt
“This book does not aim to explain schizophrenia or replace existing clinical accounts. It asks something different: that the reader listen carefully to how language behaves under pressure.”
From the Introduction.