About

Synoptica is a curated, living bibliography of published first-person neuropsychiatric narratives. I built it because the way we’re trained to listen is often shaped first by frameworks like the DSM and pathophysiology—useful tools, but incomplete as primary languages for lived experience.

When diagnostic categories become the first (or only) frame, lived realities can get flattened: what illness feels like, how identity changes, how families adapt, how stigma deforms care, and how “functioning” can mask suffering. Synoptica widens the aperture—without abandoning rigor.

This is not a submissions platform. I own the primary texts and treat this project as a literature review: entries are my synthesis and structured metadata, designed to help patients, caregivers, trainees, and providers find what’s already been written—and approach it with care.

Guiding ethic

Nothing about us without us. First-person narratives belong at the center of how we teach, practice, and design systems for mental health.

How to use this archive

For patients and caregivers

This archive is not a reading list you’re meant to complete. It’s a map. You may recognize yourself in some narratives and feel alienated by others. Both reactions are valid.

• Use entries to find language for experiences that are hard to describe in clinical visits.
• Choose books that feel approachable—or avoid ones that feel too close.
• Read in pieces. Take breaks. Stop when needed. This material can be heavy.

For providers

Synoptica complements diagnostic frameworks and evidence-based care. Use entries to broaden how illness is lived outside the clinic, to inform reflective practice and teaching, and to approach narrative resources as tools that require judgment and care.

Funding / support

Supported by: INSERT FUNDING SOURCE HERE

Contact

Email: YOUR_EMAIL_HERE

Copyright note

Synoptica does not reproduce books. Entries consist of original summaries, analysis, and indexing. Any quotations (if present) are brief and attributed.