Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Illness
Storytelling, Memory, and Emotion
Love and Family
Responsibility and the Medical System
Summary
Analysis
Susannah's article changes Dr. Najjar's life as well. He invites Susannah to visit not long after the article runs. As they have tea, Dr. Najjar tells Susannah that his father, a man who insisted his sons receive an education even though he himself had never graduated high school, cried when he saw Susannah's article translated into Arabic. After the article, the Syrian ambassador to the UN congratulated Dr. Najjar, and later that year, Dr. Najjar was named one of New York Magazine's best neurologists in the US.
These happy outcomes tie back to Susannah's tarot reading early in the memoir: she does experience success, as do those associated with her. Dr. Najjar's success in particular allows him to go on and help other patients like Susannah, as she didn't change his name in the article or the memoir and therefore made him easier to search out.
Themes
