Susannah Cahalan was a young journalist in her twenties working at the NY Post when she started to show symptoms of paranoia.  It started with very normal worries about bed bugs, but it progressed to full delusion along with mania.  She ended up in a hospital for a long time (more than a month) while the experts tried to work out what the cause of her problems were.  She diagnosed herself with bipolar disorder, but she was wrong.  Eventually they worked out it was a rare autoimmune disorder that caused brain inflammation, and they had treatment to return Cahalan back to normal.  Her book tells the story of her life in the newsroom, her relationships with her boyfriend and her parents, and her friends.  She explains that she has almost memory of the time she was in the depths of her illness, so she had to reconstruct that time through interviewing others, watching hospital videos of herself, and reading the letters and notes that those around her wrote to her and each other.  She brings her tabloid talents to keep the story lively, providing lots of dialog and focusing on the most alarming parts of what happened.  The mystery about her illness and the variety of opinions from different experts provide the central theme of the book.  Once Cahalan had got through her drama, she wrote about it for her newspaper and she got TV coverage as a result.  Her case was also discussed in many medical journals.  She saves some of her strongest words for the misdiagnosis by one of her doctors who said that her problem was that she was partying too hard and drinking too much.  She contacted him in writing the book and found that he was unaware of the new medical information that led to her diagnosis and cure.  She says that this is a major problem with the medical profession; doctors should not be so focused on cramming patients into their practice and should not lose track of new and life-saving medical research.  Brain on Fire is an easy read detailing an unusual brain/body disorder.

© 2014 Christian Perring

Christian Perring, Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, New York