Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (Real Talk on Mental Health and Neurodiversity)

Read the #1 Amazon bestseller by "one of the foremost writers of disability and higher education we have today."

Academia isn’t an easy place to be if your brain isn’t quite right.

Colleagues carelessly call each other “schizo” and “bipolar.” Another colleague is fired—easy enough to do these days, when most college teachers no longer have tenure—for “instability.” In these ways and many more, psychiatrically disabled people working in higher education are reminded every day that their privilege, their very livelihoods, can be stripped away by the groundless suspicions of others. Their lives can be, in an instant, interrupted.

The essays in this book cover topics such as disclosure of disabilities, accommodations and accessibility, how to be a good abled friend to a disabled person, the trigger warnings debate, and more. Written for a popular audience, for those with disabilities and for those who want to learn more about living a disabled life, Life of the Mind Interrupted aims to make higher education, and the rest of our society, more humane.

Part of the Blue Crow Books Critical Higher Education Series.

"Pryal is one of the foremost writers of disability and higher education we have today." -Catherine J. Prendergast, author of Buying into English: Language and Investment in the New Capitalist World

“Pryal’s wit and humor shine through even as she tackles harrowing subjects, like living with depression and suicide. She shows us how important it is to make academia, and our world, more accessible for everyone. … This is not a book to miss.” -Kelly J. Baker, award-winning author of Sexism Ed: Essays on Gender and Labor in Higher Education