The Collected Schizophrenias

Content Warning: This section contains discussions of involuntary hospitalization.

Wang was involuntarily committed in 2002 and recalls her experiences at the psychiatric hospital. She was given “Level One Status” (95) and attached to a group of other Level One patients. They were ushered to the cafeteria for meals and served a sort of sloppy breakfast that she choked down. She sat alone for her first few days. Wang remarks on the irony of the term “asylum,” which is meant to signify safety from harm but has come to denote a terrifying, disturbing place due to historical abuses and popular culture. She recounts the experience of Nellie Bly, a journalist who entered an “asylum” in 1887 by pretending to “be insane herself” (97). She described it as “a tomb of living humans” (97) and recalls being gaslit into thinking her memories were inaccurate. Wang confirms hospitalization is a sentence of being disbelieved at every turn, and the staff forms false beliefs about the patients.

Before her third hospitalization, Wang recalls being on a business trip with C. While alone in the hotel room, overwhelming terror consumed her, and she hid in the closet for several hours.