This is about a Book Project, which will delight you and make you ponder your deep life questions. It's about a nervous breakdown. And it is very pro-breakdown. Here's the breakdown on the breakdown:

I have realized that the preceding entries will make up a fairly good outline for the general narrative structure of the new book project, which will inevitably result from continued writing on my part.

It will be about my breakdown. It will include interspersed transcribed conversations with my doctor -- a spirited, warm and endlessly patient guide throughout my journey. The whole book will be pro-breakdown. Still, the tone will be at times "Don't knock it 'til you've tried it," and at others "Imagine your utter despair on such a trip as this." The up-and-down, tug-of-war is part of the book's experienced voice, and it is also part of the experience of the reader of the book.

One important message will be that society is crazy in its need to make the breakdowners disappear into silence. After all, breakdowns have a very impressive cultural and intellectual history. Just look at Abe and Mary Lincoln. We have no trouble talking about their depressions, losses, and fights with black grief. Look at the interesting confluence of instances of depressive illness in artists. There are libraries of books written about dead people. But what about the rest of us? The ones waiting out the silence.

But this is not Kay Jamison. This is not Charles Strozier. This project has its roots in the understanding that silence is no longer an option for me.