Ebook: The Becoming

The Becoming is a brutal account of mental illness by a woman who doesn't believe in mental illness. A lifetime of addiction, eating disorders, and trauma culminates explosively after the author begins a PhD at the University of Oxford, and while in hospital she is liberated through psychosis. Her journey from terror to self-acceptance is grueling, and she makes meaning of it by weaving reflexive narrative with classic and nascent scholarship. Part phenomenological recounting, part social critique, the text disrupts bio-medical approaches to altered states by exploring their emancipatory potential. It also illuminates how conventional mental health treatment pathologizes human suffering. In doing so, The Becoming contributes to anti-psychiatry and Mad studies projects, each of which asks, "What does it mean to be normal?" and "Should we be sane in an insane world?"

“Gritty and courageous. Powerfully written. A compelling read.”
—Helen Humphreys, author of The Evening Chorus

“Vivid and at times lyrical in its storytelling, this memoir is a thought-provoking exposé and politicization of madness. It is clearly written and highly readable yet provides a depth of analysis not often read outside academic texts. Nicole Luongo’s The Becoming stands as an important contribution to both the field of Mad studies and to autobiography as craft.”
—Brenda LeFrançois, University Research Professor at Memorial University and co-editor of Mad Matters