The character arc of Elyn Saks
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in the United States, in a year the public record does not publish. Between then and now sit symptoms of mental illness beginning at eight, a summa cum laude degree at Vanderbilt, a Marshall Scholarship and a master of letters at Oxford where she had her first full episode, a law degree at Yale where she was forcibly restrained and medicated, editorship of the Yale Law Journal, a doctorate in psychoanalytic science, a chair at a California law school from 1989, a memoir in 2007, a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009 spent on founding an institute, and cancer survived. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Elyn Saks?
They tied her down at law school. She built her career on that.
She began experiencing symptoms of mental illness at eight years old. She also happened to be formidably clever, and the two facts ran side by side for the next twenty years. She graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt, won a Marshall Scholarship, and went to Oxford for a master of letters.
It was at Oxford that she had her first full episode. Then, as a student at Yale Law School, she had another, after which, in the record's words, she ended up forcibly restrained and forced to take antipsychotic medication. She finished the law degree anyway, and edited the Yale Law Journal while she was at it.
What she did with that experience is the whole point of her. She became a legal scholar and made her subject the destructive impact that force and coercion have on the lives of people with psychiatric illnesses, in treatment and in encounters with the police. She taught at Bridgeport, joined the University of Southern California law faculty in 1989, and is now an associate dean and a named professor of law, psychology and psychiatry there. She also took a doctorate in psychoanalytic science.
In 2007 she published The Center Cannot Hold, her account of living with schizophrenia. It was one of a magazine's ten best nonfiction books of the year, won an inspirational memoir award and reached a national bestseller list. She has spoken to American psychiatric professionals about being a successful professional who has had severe mental illness, and gave a widely watched talk in June 2012.
In 2009 she was made a MacArthur Fellow, which comes with five hundred thousand dollars and no conditions. She spent it founding the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics, which has run conferences on the urgent problem of excessive force in encounters between law enforcement and people with mental illness. She is also a cancer survivor.
The moments
Elyn Saks's timeline.
The 1960s
Symptoms at eight
Setback, and it changed everything. Eight years old, and something was already wrong.
The 1970s
Top of her year
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Highest honours, at a university that does not hand them out.
A first episode at Oxford
Setback, and it changed everything. A Marshall Scholarship, Oxford, and the first full episode.
The 1980s
Restrained at Yale
Setback, and it changed everything. Tied down and medicated against her will, in the middle of law school.
She finishes anyway
Milestone, and it changed everything. She got the degree and edited the law journal on the way through.
Teaching law
Milestone, and it changed her direction. From the wrong end of the system to the front of the classroom.
A chair in three subjects
Milestone, and it changed everything. Law, psychology and psychiatry, all three, in one chair.
The 1990s
The subject she chose
Milestone, and it changed everything. She made her subject the exact thing that had been done to her.
The 2000s
Awards for the work
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Her own faculty naming her work the most creative it had.
The Center Cannot Hold
Milestone, and it changed everything. She put the whole thing in print, under her own name, as a sitting professor.
A genius grant, spent
Milestone, and it changed everything. Half a million dollars with no conditions, and she built an institute with it.
What to do with the money
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: build the institute, taken, or take the time. The institute has since run conferences on excessive force in encounters between police and people with mental illness.
The 2010s
She takes the stage
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Standing in front of the profession, telling them what it was like.
Force, and the police
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The institute, working on the exact problem she survived.
The institute she built with the genius grant is still running conferences on the thing that happened to her. What she set moving is the law itself, bent a little towards the people it used to simply hold down, by a woman who was one of them and then read every statute about it.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers had symptoms at eight and restraint at law school, and she still edited the law journal. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Elyn Saks: frequently asked questions
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More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Elyn Saks, English Wikipedia biography.
- MacArthur Foundation records for her 2009 fellowship.
- University of Southern California Gould School of Law records for her chair and associate deanship.
- Her birth date is not in the public record reached, so this page states none.