The Heartland
SCHIZOPHRENIA: whether it’s the associations it conjures or the people it brings to mind, it is a word we all have a view on. How we perceive it – and how we treat people living with it – is at the core of how we understand mental health.
But what do we really know? How much time do we spend listening? Do we truly comprehend this complex and often contradictory diagnosis?
In The Heartland, Nathan Filer, mental health nurse and award-winning writer, takes us on a journey into the psychiatric wards he once worked on. He also invites us to spend time with world-leading experts and with some extraordinary people who share their own stories – true stories – about living with this strange and misunderstood condition.
The Heartland debunks myths, challenges assumptions and offers fresh insight into what it means to be mad.
And what it means to be human.
‘Absolutely blew me away… I cannot think of another book in the field that would come close to this… I really appreciated the deft touches of humour which humanised it even more’
Interview
‘Absolutely blew me away… I cannot think of another book in the field that would come close to this… I really appreciated the deft touches of humour which humanised it even more’
‘A truly important book. Radically open-hearted and vitally open-minded. Read it, and share it, and talk about it.’
‘Erudite, well-researched and full of compassion. This book will change the way people understand schizophrenia’
‘I have never read a more powerful book about mental health’
‘At once conversational, confiding and challenging… helps us open our minds to new ways of thinking about mental health, about each other, and about our own selves’
'The Heartland is a brilliant, beautiful and bold book. It is illuminating and empathetic and needs to be read by all'
'This is a beautifully written book that brims with compassion and wit'
'The Heartland is a book that everyone should read... upsetting, entertaining and fascinating.'
‘Dark, touching, sweet and funny and beautifully written’