Susannah Cahalan, author of “Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness,” spoke to nearly 800 people in the Recreation and Convocation Center on campus on Wednesday night, Oct. 8th, about her experience with the medical community and mental illness. 

“Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness” is a critically acclaimed, number one New York Times bestseller published in 2012. It was selected as the common text for this year’s Mental Health and Wellness Freshmen Studies common theme, which was selected by a committee made up of 25 students, faculty and staff.

Alex Barron, assistant professor of University Programs and the director of the Freshmen Studies program, is happy with students’ reactions to the book.

“We wanted a story that students could relate to…[one] that would really get you inside the mind of somebody who feels like they’re unraveling and makes you feel [it] if you’ve never felt it before,” Barron said. 

Cahalan, who since the book’s release has been attending various publicity events across the country, began her lecture Wednesday night by thanking the audience for picking such an important common theme.

“What a worthy theme to pick. I feel really honored that you’re letting me talk to you about it. It’s amazing, and I’m very thankful right now,” she said.

Calahan’s now ten-year-long career as an investigative reporter for the New York Post almost ended back in 2009 when she first began experiencing the symptoms of what would later be identified as encephalitis, an inflamation of the brain.

During the lecture, Cahalan read several vivid passages from her book while outlining the events of her life before, during and after the onset of the rare autoimmune disorder.

She made sure to specify that she is, in no way, a reliable narrator of her month spent in the NYU epilepsy ward, during which she “became a different person.” 

“I have no memory. I have a false memory,” she said.

Cahalan spoke about how she, using her journalistic skills, compiled all of the evidence—including medical records; interviews with doctors, nurses, friends, and family; notebooks; journals; and video footage taken by hospital cameras—to help piece together this period of forgotten time.

She mentioned that during the recovery process, she found a postcard of John Singer Sargent’s Madame X that she apparently bought at the Metropolitan Museum of Art shortly before her symptoms began. She has no memory of ever going to the museum that day, and she compares that experience to her entire lost month.

“There are things that I write about,” she said, “that are dark, that are blank, that are imprinted in me somewhere. They’re there somewhere—the experience is somewhere in my marrow. So maybe it’s gone, but maybe it isn’t…Maybe, even though ‘I’ was not there to experience it for the first time, some part of me nevertheless was maybe [present] for that entire lost month.”

Cahalan ended her lecture by reading a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche that says, “The existence of forgetting has never been proved: we only know that some things do not come to our mind when we want them to.”

Cahalan’s lecture was met with positive responses from students.

“I really liked coming to the event to hear her actually speak. Reading the book, you get details, but whenever you’re hearing somebody actually talk, you get so much more from it—you get her facial expressions…and you can just really feel more of her emotion towards it,” Senior Bekah Hohl said.

Following her lecture, Cahalan opened the floor to questions from the audience. She then spent over two hours signing books and posing for pictures with the audience. Making sure she had the chance to sign everyone’s books, she stayed on campus until nearly 11 o’clock.

“This is the most lovely, smart, intelligent, passionate group of people, and I’ve been so blown away by their response. I’m just really grateful and really honored—I love Austin, and I love this university,” Cahalan said.

Follow Samantha on Twitter @samanthdriscoll