Read the horrifying encounters of people caught between the worlds; trapped against their will in mental institutions and classed as 'unlivable'. The shocking truth is revealed through the lives of those involved.
A twelve year old boy, one of the youngest people on whom was performed the barbaric trans-orbital, ice pick, lobotomy. This book is a powerful, moving story of his rise from the depths of enforced mental illness to his redemption late in life.
Nellie Bly worked feigned mental illness so she could enter the world of the Women's Lunatic Asylum Blackwell's Island. What she found there prompted a grand jury to begin an investigation into conditions so horrific that she almost became a forgotten victim herself.
Four hundred abandoned suitcases found in the attic of an abandoned mental asylum tells the story of ordinary people with ordinary lives caught up in the nightmare of voluntary mental health...and became trapped for the rest of their lives.
Horrifying real and the absolute truth.
BUY
My Lobotomy
Ten Days in a Mad-House: Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island. Feigning Insanity in Order to Reveal Asylum Horrors
The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital
Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness
Comment
I took a peek into the book `The lives they left behind` on the Amazon site. I read the part where the Quakers did not know what caused `madness` but still treated afflicted people as brethren. For those so stricken they built country retreats where these people were given shelter, food and companionship, and through this caring attitude many recovered. When I read those words in the book preview I was instantly reminded of my mother-in-laws situation. She had been in hospital for 3-months due to a bad fall which damaged her hip, the second fall in a matter of months the first need a hip replacement. While these hospital periods were being lived through it became clear she was developing dementia, her eating of substantial food to maintain good health deteriorated, she would refuse medicine and forget what had happened a minute before. The future for her did not look good, the hospital suggested she went into a care home but her son and daughter wanted her home, after a long period of `ifs` and `buts` and assurances she would be cared for she was aloud to return to her home where she lived with her son, her daughter visited her daily. After 2-weeks at home her eating has improved dramatically, even though she has other health issues she gets about and is more talkative, Yes the dementia is still there but her overall feel for life has been illuminated by being in surroundings she knew, close to her son and daughter whom she knows care and love her. Its seems as though the `Quakers` were right in their approach of compassion and caring love. She is in her 80`s now and we know things will not get any better but for the moment she is contented, and like her family have said if and when she dies she will be where she has always wanted to be the place she calls home.
May I just add the hospitals care of my mother-in-law was outstanding, we could not fault anything.
I took a peek into the book `The lives they left behind` on the Amazon site. I read the part where the Quakers did not know what caused `madness` but still treated afflicted people as brethren. For those so stricken they built country retreats where these people were given shelter, food and companionship, and through this caring attitude many recovered. When I read those words in the book preview I was instantly reminded of my mother-in-laws situation. She had been in hospital for 3-months due to a bad fall which damaged her hip, the second fall in a matter of months the first need a hip replacement. While these hospital periods were being lived through it became clear she was developing dementia, her eating of substantial food to maintain good health deteriorated, she would refuse medicine and forget what had happened a minute before. The future for her did not look good, the hospital suggested she went into a care home but her son and daughter wanted her home, after a long period of `ifs` and `buts` and assurances she would be cared for she was aloud to return to her home where she lived with her son, her daughter visited her daily. After 2-weeks at home her eating has improved dramatically, even though she has other health issues she gets about and is more talkative, Yes the dementia is still there but her overall feel for life has been illuminated by being in surroundings she knew, close to her son and daughter
ReplyDeletewhom she knows care and love her. Its seems as though the `Quakers` were right in their approach of compassion and caring love. She is in her 80`s now and we know things will not get any better but for the moment she is contented, and like her family have said if and when she dies she will be where she has always wanted to be the place she calls home.
May I just add the hospitals care of my mother-in-law was outstanding, we could not fault anything.