Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education

by Katie Rose Guest Pryal

Overview

Higher education is facing a mental health crisis. Life of the Mind Interrupted guides us through it.

While calls for improved accessibility and inclusion in the workplace have gained momentum in recent years, for millions of people who are neurodivergent or struggle with their mental health, the quest for acceptance often happens in the shadows-if at all.

In this collection of deeply personal yet relatable essays, Dr. Katie Rose Pryal, a bipolar-autistic lawyer, professor, and speaker traces her own journey alongside that of other neurodivergent people in in higher education, and how they faced many challenges. It provides advice for everyone in higher education communities, on topics such as:

• Quests for accommodations
• Managing career fears
• Coping with stigma
• Nurturing allyship


As hopeful as it is revealing, Life of the Mind Interrupted is an essential addition to the conversation on inclusion of neurodiversity in the workplace and beyond.

"If you want to understand how higher education is built, and not built, for people with disabilities-especially mental health-related ones-Pryal's book is for you." -Book Riot

"Pryal writes with a refreshing and raw honesty. A must-read, not just for those in academia." -BookTrib Magazine

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947834903
Publisher:	Blue Osprey Books
Publication date:	02/10/2025
Series:	Real Talk on Mental Health and Neurodiversity , #1
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.48(d)

About the Author

Katie Rose Guest Pryal, J.D., Ph.D., is the bestselling author of Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education, The Freelance Academic: Transform Your Creative Life and Career, and Even If You're Broken: Essays on Sexual Assault and #MeToo. She's also the author of novels including Entanglement, Chasing Chaos, Fallout Girl, and Take Your Charming Somewhere Else. Her essays have appeared in Catapult, The Toast, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and other venues.

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. Disclosure Blues

1. Disclosure Blues

2. She's So Schizophrenic!

3. Shattering the Madness Monolith

4. Breaking the Mad Genius Myth

5. Working When Your Brain Isn't

6. Rough Accommodations

7. Revisiting Disclosure

II. Collegiality

8. Collegiality and Disability

9. Help! My Best Friend is Bipolar

10. Handling Personal Tragedies Around You

11. I’m Not Brave

12. Not a Compliant Woman Colleague

13. Conference Challenges for People with Psychiatric Disabilities

14. Accessibility Is for Everyone

15. Believe Your Colleagues with Disabilities

III. Teaching

16. How to Have the Accommodations Talk

17. Trigger Warnings Are a Disability Issue

18. How Making My Teaching Accessible Made My Teaching Better

19. What Do Psychiatrically Disabled Faculty Owe Our Students?

20. We Are Not Prepared for Students in Distress

21. The Secret Life of the Graduate Student

IV. Beyond the Academy

22. A Mother’s Suicide Attempt and the Guilty Burden of Statistics

23. Traveling Stigmata

24. With New Life Comes a Fear of Death

Acknowledgments

Editorial Reviews

"Pryal writes with a refreshing and raw honesty." -New York Times bestselling author Kate Moretti for Booktrib Magazine

"Life of the Mind Interrupted is personal, political, polemical, and pointed in its vision for transforming higher education to be more inclusive of disabled and mentally ill people. ... If you want to understand how higher education is built, and not built, for people with disabilities--especially mental health-related ones--Pryal's book is for you." -Bookriot

"Katie Rose Guest 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

"These thoughtfully chosen and arranged essays grapple with issues relevant to disabled students and scholars as well as those who would be allies. With a particular focus on mental illness and other forms of invisible disability, Pryal calls on us to do much, much better." -Kecia Ali, Ph.D., author of Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence

"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, author of Sexism Ed: Essays on Gender and Labor in Higher Education

From the Publisher