Even If You’re Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health

In this clear-eyed, incisive, and often funny book, Katie Rose Pryal, a bipolar-autistic author and law professor, introduces readers to the convergence of mental health and sexual assault. Using both personal stories and analyses of public events, Pryal explains the ways bodily boundaries are abused and the mental harm that follows.

Included are a surreal, quick-witted tale of Pryal’s report of a past sexual assault to her college’s Title IX office—after being hired there as a professor. A grim yet comical story of manipulation by a married professor while Pryal was a student that nearly cost her degree. A Kafkaesque account of finding herself in a video installation at a major art museum after secretly being recorded by the artist.

Also included are smart analyses of high-profile events where sexual assault and mental health are front and center, including the uncovering of Larry Nassar’s abuse of gymnasts, the hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the perennial mistreatment of survivors with mental health struggles by the justice system.

The relatable stories in Even If You’re Broken take readers on a journey of courage and hope and help move us toward a more humane society.

The 2023 revised and expanded edition features a new introduction and six new chapters.