Brain On Fire Analysis

Liam Herndon
Ms. Walsh
E12
21 December, 2016
Response of Susannah Cahalan’s Family to her Illness
In her memoir Brain on Fire, Susannah Cahalan describes her descent into madness. While the rest of the world believes that she has succumbed to insanity, her family relentlessly supports her and refuses to lose hope in her mental state. Her family’s support appears to be the result of unconditional love, but it is actually rooted in their desperate desire for her to return to her former self. Susannah’s family members believe that, without their help, she cannot fully recover, and they will never again see the Susannah they loves. Her family’s actual attitude toward her illness is better represented by their initial reaction to it.
At first, Susannah’s

Her father, Tom-- the same man who reacted so coldly to Susannah’s illness a few days before-- suddenly becomes her protector and source of reassurance. He spends all his time at the hospital with her and fibs to her that he is sure that she will “make progress every day” (97). All of his words and actions are now attempts to comfort Susannah, despite his refusal to do so earlier in her illness. Even when his views do not change, he becomes more optimistic. He “ha[s] always distrusted medical authority” (22), for example, and he initially rejects the possibility that Susannah’s behavior is the result of mono or bipolar syndrome. When Susannah is hospitalized, he continues to disbelieve the doctors, but his doubt is different: he claims that they do not have enough hope for her. When Susannah hears that her ovaries may be removed, he expresses this belief to her, saying, “They have no idea what the hell they’re talking about” (160). Instead of rejecting the notion that Susannah is not at fault for her behavior, he now rejects the possibility that she will have to undergo an unpleasant, life-changing surgery. His distrust of doctors remains, but he shifts from ignoring claims that Susannah’s behavior is the result of an outside force to providing false comfort in the face of

It is the result of its desperate wish for her to return to her former self. While Tom and Stephen constantly care for Susannah during her illness, they are not primarily concerned with keeping her happy. Instead, they are fixated on helping the old Susannah reemerge. Tom’s fixation on curing Susannah is most obvious. He “decide[s] that whatever happen[s], he [will] be by her side” only when he learns that without his help and support Susannah may be committed to a psychiatric ward, where she will not receive the same level of medical support (91). Susannah has been suffering in the hospital for days before he makes this decision, but, clearly, he is not primarily concerned with her suffering. Rather, Tom expresses a sense of urgency only because he wants her to recover before the doctors give up and her former self is forever lost. Likewise, Stephen is “[t]here for [Susannah] as long as [she] need[s] him” (93), but primarily seeks to salvage her former identity. The motivation is far more subtle in his case-- in fact, he promises to stay with her no matter how much she degenerates-- but he still shares Tom’s focus on helping her revover. His role during Susannah’s illness is not so much that of a comforter, but that of a tool to revive her former identity. In Stephen’s presence, the deviant, hysterical Susannah subsides as she “visibly relax[es],” becoming more resemblant of her former self (93).