Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us is a 2022 non-fiction book by Rachel Aviv[1] that focuses on mental illness, diagnosis, and people in extreme mental distress.
She selected people who had written personal diaries and letters so that she could learn how they viewed their world.
[2] The book quotes medical and scholarly essays, legal documents, and personal and creative writings by Ray, Bapu, Naomi, Laura, and Hava.
[3] Drawing on her own childhood diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, Aviv weaves her personal story into the narrative.
[5] “Aviv’s chapters draw on her talent for narrative feature writing, as she weaves personal stories in and out of structural backdrops.