Mystery
Cahalan wakes up in the hospital not remembering the previous month in which she was in the hospital acting violently. When doctors provide no satisfactory diagnosis for her problem, she devotes herself to figuring out what is wrong with her brain. Pairing up with Dr. Najjar, she eventually does discover the cause of her episodes. But it's a wild ride to get there. The plot of the book is based upon the element of mystery and unknown surrounding her condition and that missing month.
Judgement
Whether due to her age or her looks or whatever, Cahalan is judged by her doctor's. Most of them do not believe she is sick at all. They ascribe her memory loss and bizarre behavior to substance abuse. She goes down the list, crossing off all the people who don't believe her. This is a frustrating process which leads Cahalan to adopt some of her adversaries' habits. In turn, she begins dismissing one after another until she finds someone truly open-minded like Dr. Najjar.
Fear
During the majority of the book, Cahalan's motivating factor is fear. She doesn't know what's happening to her or what's wrong. Waking up and realizing she's lost an entire month's memory, her mind jumps to radical conclusions. She's afraid of what she might've done and what will happen to her because of it. It's not until she meets a doctor who takes her seriously as a person that she is able to calm down and think more rationally. She doesn't have the distance or emotional clarity to make the important decisions necessary in such a vital time. Only after that element of fear is addressed and quantified can Cahalan arrive at some real results.
Hindsight
So much of Cahalan's story depends upon her ability to look at past events through a new lens. In fact she's constantly gathering information which helps her to re-interpret her past. This painstaking process of reflection helps her to better explain where she's come from and to extend herself grace for past mistakes which may have been beyond her control. Hindsight is also the method by which she and her doctor's develop their theory about her condition.
