About Elliot

I’m Elliot Gavin Keenan.

I’m a scholar of mental illness and an author of creative nonfiction. I have a PhD in Human Development and Psychology from UCLA. My research (mostly focused on autism or bipolar disorder) capitalizes on my extensive lived experience as well as navigating the discourse between lived experience and empirical discovery.

I’m autistic (diagnosed at age 6) and I’ve lived with bipolar disorder since childhood. I also have ADHD, dyspraxia, and catatonia.

My interests include Pokémon, strategy games, and cats.

Facts about me:

  • Kay Redfield Jamison (author of An Unquiet Mind) is one of my personal heroes. She inspired me to become a psychologist.
  • My favorite color is somewhere around #C4FAFF:
  • One of my favorite books is Bluets by Maggie Nelson.
  • I have a lazy tortoiseshell cat.
  • My favorite Pokémon games are HeartGold/SoulSilver and Black/White.
  • I play Commander/EDH format Magic: the Gathering. I usually play my Animar, Soul of Elements deck.
Others I didn’t include here are Smeargle, Noivern, A-Marowak, and Wartortle.

I think that I still have it in my heart someday to paint a bookshop with the front yellow and pink in the evening…like a light in the midst of the darkness.

Vincent van Gogh