Mind on Fire
Arnold Fanning
2018 • Penguin
The book, I hope, will contribute to continuing the ongoing openness of discourse on mental illness, and to destigmatizing people who suffer from mental distress. Above all, for those who do suffer mental distress, the book says you are not alone, you can recover, and most importantly, not only can you manage your life after a diagnosis of a serious mental illness, but actually you can thrive and flourish and be happy with it.
— Arnold Fanning
Mind on Fire
Arnold Fanning
2018 • Penguin
The book, I hope, will contribute to continuing the ongoing openness of discourse on mental illness, and to destigmatizing people who suffer from mental distress. Above all, for those who do suffer mental distress, the book says you are not alone, you can recover, and most importantly, not only can you manage your life after a diagnosis of a serious mental illness, but actually you can thrive and flourish and be happy with it.
— Arnold Fanning
Description
Arnold Thomas Fanning had his first experience of depression during adolescence, following the death of his mother. Some ten years later, an up-and-coming playwright, he was overcome by mania and delusions. Thus began a terrible period in which he was often suicidal, increasingly disconnected from family and friends, sometimes in trouble with the law, and homeless in London.
Drawing on his own memories, the recollections of people who knew him when he was at his worst, and medical and police records, Arnold Thomas Fanning has produced a beautifully written, devastatingly intense account of madness – and recovery, to the point where he has not had any serious illness for over a decade and has become an acclaimed playwright. Fanning conveys the consciousness of a person living with mania, psychosis and severe depression with a startling precision and intimacy. Mind on Fire is the gripping, sometimes harrowing, and ultimately uplifting testament of a person who has visited hellish regions of the mind.
Interviews
- The gloss: 'Writer’s Block With Arnold Thomas Fanning'
- Irish World: Arnold Fanning – ‘I Thought Somebody was Going to Kill me’
- Irish Independent: 'Suicidal, Homeless, Paranoid and Manic – Playwright Arnold Thomas Fanning on Writing about his lost Decade'
- The Times: 'Arnold Thomas Fanning on the Paranoid Delusions Behind his Memoir Mind on Fire'
Prizes & Awards
Reviews
- Martina Evans, The Irish Times
- Marie Rooney, Dublin Review of Books
- Arifa Akbar, The Guardian
- Dr. Eric Roche, The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland
- Medical Independent
- Eric Karl Anderson, Lonesome Reader Blog
- George Aranda, Science Book a Day Blog
Audio
- Róisín Meets Podcast: Arnold Thomas Fanning – Mind on Fire
- White Coat Black Art: Mind on Fire – A Memoir of Madness and Recovery
Video
- Dublin Book Festival: Interview With Arnold Thomas Fanning
- dotMD Conference: Irish Authors Sinéad Gleeson and Arnold Thomas Fanning in Conversation with Dr. Rachel Clarke
