What if the path to healing didn't begin with control, but instead, started with companionship?
In this moving memoir, Eugene Larkin recounts his years at the radical Soteria House project-where staff lived alongside people experiencing psychosis, offering no medication, only presence.
Through vivid storytelling, Larkin traces his journey from a Catholic working-class upbringing in the Midwest, through disillusionment and self-discovery in Brazil, to the heart of a groundbreaking experiment in healing schizophrenia without medication. What emerges is not just a personal narrative, but a call for trust, presence, and radical empathy in the face of madness. Seeking Soteria is a powerful testimony to what's possible when we choose trust over fear, being over fixing, and humanity over systems.
Part memoir, part social critique, part love letter to those who walk with others through the dark - Seeking Soteria will resonate with mental health professionals, psychiatric survivors, Peace Corps alumni, and readers seeking a more human, more hopeful way forward.
ADVANCE PRAISE
In Seeking Soteria, Eugene Larkin takes readers back inside the Soteria Home that existed in the 1970s, bringing that "therapeutic" space alive, telling both of its joys and challenges, and of his "being with" those we call mad. Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic
"Simply said Seeking Soteria is a gem. Eugene Larkin's writing style is pure delight. Through the telling of his story, we learn about the magic of Soteria House-the compassionate treatment of people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The Soteria study was a very successful program in the 1970s, and this book puts you right there. Whether you already know about Soteria House and want to learn what it was really like, or are just somebody interested in the human condition, Seeking Soteria is for you." Jim Gottstein, Author of The Zyprexa Papers
"In Seeking Soteria, the author, Eugene Larkin, has quietly but powerfully described the challenges of helping people who are coping with 'extreme mental states' feel safe and protected in a therapeutic community while finding their way back to themselves and their lives. This is an important book." Courtenay Harding, PhD, Retired Professor of Psychiatry Author of Recovery from Schizophrenia: Evidence, History, and Hope
"Every so often, a crack in the system opens up, and some light gets in, showing us a better way to live together. This is the light that shines through Seeking Soteria. Eugene Larkin's memoir is one of those underground publications that could literally overturn the status quo on mental health care. Read this book, think about it, and start living it." David Healy, MD FRCPsych, Professor of Psychiatry Author of Shipwreck of the Singular: Healthcare's Castaways
"Seeking Soteria is a story of redemption and a convincing critique of our mental health system. Rich and compelling, Larkin recounts his experience working in an experimental treatment program for psychosis and provides deep, perceptive portraits of the people he met there. His story is deceptively profound, and the reader will come away with a guide to becoming more fully human." Albert Galves, Ph.D. author of Harness Your Dark Side
"A wise, sensitive, and inspiring book... A lucid exposition of what is wrong with an overly biomedical psychiatry and how Soteria provides a coherent, humane, therapeutic alternative. This book, Seeking Soteria, belongs on the shelf of everyone seeking a better way in psychiatry." Pesach Lichtenberg, M.D., Clinical Professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Founding Director of the Soteria Unit at Kfar Shaul Hospital, and Founder of Soteria Israel
