Jessie the Galaxy

<p>In April 2014 after a 911 call by Jessie the 29 year-old married mother of an 18-month-old daughter is sent to an isolation room of the Psychiatric Unit of Richmond Hospital. She is engaging in the paranoia delusion that her husband is a murderer and she is having difficulties discerning the reality of photos and video works published by a performance artist James who was her former classmate. After being admitted the doctor diagnoses Jessie with schizophrenia. Although the hospital discharges her after a few weeks she ends up staying for another two weeks and opting for injections rather than oral medication.</p><p><br></p><p>The story brings together the shared realities of Jessie and her fellow patients through a series of group portraits that serve as a universal mirror to herself. Meng is Jessie's roommate; she is addiction to candy and never speaks. Zen is a female biology professor who gives Jessie a brief life lesson and inspires her to seek a divorce. Ikhlas is a Muslim boy with whom Jessie gets along well; a year later she finds out (via Facebook) that he has died. Dasa is a seventyish man intent on lewd act with her; ultimately he is discharged earlier than her. Brian is an aggressive self-involved sociopath who regularly tries to escape and is caught and returned.</p><p><br></p><p>This often-surreal memoir accounts for how one's sanity addresses and overcomes madness such as schizophrenia. Jessie voluntarily ceases the pills and lies to her doctor for more than a year and achieves recovery. She finds out just how thin the line is between the mania and depression and explores the trigger and the motive to get healed.</p>