Didion and Diagnoses

“Diagnosis never seems to lead to a cure, Didion observes, only an enforced debility. But as with a psychiatric evaluation of herself conducted in 1968 […] Didion sees and reflects on the truths of the assessment even as she ponders it at arm’s length.”

Joan Didion’s forthcoming memoir, Blue Nights, explores the flexibility and arbitrary aspects of  psychiatric diagnoses through the experience of her daughter’s struggle with an evolving diagnosis.