Rites of Passage

About the Book

In this memoir of schizophrenia, Jason Stuart Ratcliff describes his struggle to manhood through the firestorm of schizophrenic psychosis, his journey through an often abusive mental health system, and his ideas of the necessity of "mental illness pride" in a society that socially excludes the psychotic person. Readers will continually have to remind themselves that this is not a novel but a true story.

About the Author

Jason Stuart Ratcliff was born in California in 1972 and grew up in Aurora, Colorado. At the age of 17 he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and spent the next two years in various institutions, including what he considers "the longest year of my life" at the often physically rough Cleo Wallace center in Westminster, Colorado. He currently lives in Denver.