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The Ghost Garden: Inside the lives of schizophrenia's feared and forgotten

di Susan Doherty

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1631,295,836 (4.75)Nessuno
A rare work of narrative non-fiction that illuminates a world most of us try not to see: the daily lives of the severely mentally ill, who are medicated, marginalized, locked away and shunned. Susan Doherty's groundbreaking book brings us a population of lost souls, ill-served by society, feared, shunted from locked wards to rooming houses to the streets to jail and back again. For the past ten years, some of the people who cycle in and out of the severely ill wards of the Douglas Institute in Montreal, have found a friend in Susan, who volunteers on the ward, and then follows her friends out into the world as they struggle to get through their days.      With their full cooperation, she brings us their stories, which challenge the ways we think about people with mental illness on every page. The spine of the book is the life of Caroline Evans (not her real name), a woman in her early sixties whom Susan has known since she was a bright and sunny school girl. Caroline had formed a close friendship with Susan and shared stories from her life; through her, we experience what living with schizophrenia over time is really like. She has been through it all, including the way the justice system treats the severely mentally ill: at one point, she believed that she could save her roommate from the devil by pouring boiling water into her ear...      Susan interleaves Caroline's story with vignettes about her other friends, human stories that reveal their hopes, their circumstances, their personalities, their humanity. She's found that if she can hang in through the first ten to fifteen minutes of every coffee date with someone in the grip of psychosis, then true communication results. Their "madness" is not otherworldly: instead it tells us something about how they're surviving their lives and what they've been through. The Ghost Garden is not only touching, but carries a cargo of compassion and empathy.… (altro)
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It took me a long time to read this book, but not because it was bad. Quite the opposite. It's life-changing.

All my life, I've been surrounded by lots of people with mental diseases, some diagnosed, most not. Some displayed extreme moments of psychosis, some did not.

My father. My brother. My sister. My uncle. A couple of aunts. My wife. My son.

Me.

So, reading this book was quite hard. It made me sad, but it also brought me inside the bubble of those who suffer through this, but can't quite colour inside the lines of societies norms. I'm one of the lucky ones. I can. Most of that list above can't.

It's also scary to read about Caroline's long, six-decade battle, as well as those others detailed in the book, her spiritual brothers and sisters. Because I worry for those whom I love and wonder how their futures will be.

And it's equally as tough on the caregivers, whether they are family, friends, or those who have chosen to assist. It's a very tough role, with often very little reward. I've been on both sides of this fence, as both the caregiver, and the one needing to be cared for. On either side, the feeling of helplessness can be overwhelming.

This is an important book. It's one that should be read. Over the ten or so days I was reading, I found I was looking at those that we would consider the marginalized in a different, more sympathetic way.

And, if nothing else, that's a positive result of going through this book. ( )
  TobinElliott | Sep 3, 2021 |
This is a non-fiction book. Susan Doherty was researching mental illness for the purposes of a novel she was writing, and decided to volunteer at the Douglas Institute in Montreal. While she was volunteering, she befriended several of the patients, and with the permission of their families, she has written a book telling the stories of these patients. A powerful read. ( )
  BonnieLymer | Dec 6, 2019 |
Susan Doherty's recently released book, The Ghost Garden, is hands down one of the best non-fiction books I've read. And it is one of my favourite reads of 2019.

I work in the public sector, often waiting on those who have some form of mental illness, some more visible than others. The Ghost Garden has given me a different perspective - more understanding of those living with mental illness as well as those who love and care for them. And a renewed sense of empathy and awareness for carers, families and sufferers.

Susan Doherty has volunteered at the Douglas Institute in Montreal, Canada for over ten years. The Douglas houses those with severe mental illness - psychosis and schizophrenia. She has come to know many of the patients well and has continued those relationships outside the hospital. A childhood friend asked Doherty if she could write the life story of her sister, a woman who has struggled for decades with severe mental illness.

The family gave Doherty full access to their family history, dynamics and struggle to help their sister. And the result is a fascinating, gut-wrenching book that is hard to read, but hard to put down. Interspersed between chapters of Caroline's life are short vignettes of other patients Doherty has come to know. Their stories were all told with their or their family's permission.

"My hope is that this book will help family members and others pinpoint warning signs and thereby, perhaps, be in a position to identify incipient mental illness - thus preventing the harrowing lives experienced by the people I have written about.....And if that lofty goal proves hard to reach, at least I can tear down some of the fences that prevent us from seeing those with schizophrenia as intelligent, productive, engaged, hilarious, beautiful, poetic, insightful, maternal, responsible human beings - and above all, worth of love."

The Ghost Garden is so well written and the subject matter is handled with honesty and compassion. A must read book for everyone in my opinion. ( )
  Twink | Jul 30, 2019 |
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A rare work of narrative non-fiction that illuminates a world most of us try not to see: the daily lives of the severely mentally ill, who are medicated, marginalized, locked away and shunned. Susan Doherty's groundbreaking book brings us a population of lost souls, ill-served by society, feared, shunted from locked wards to rooming houses to the streets to jail and back again. For the past ten years, some of the people who cycle in and out of the severely ill wards of the Douglas Institute in Montreal, have found a friend in Susan, who volunteers on the ward, and then follows her friends out into the world as they struggle to get through their days.      With their full cooperation, she brings us their stories, which challenge the ways we think about people with mental illness on every page. The spine of the book is the life of Caroline Evans (not her real name), a woman in her early sixties whom Susan has known since she was a bright and sunny school girl. Caroline had formed a close friendship with Susan and shared stories from her life; through her, we experience what living with schizophrenia over time is really like. She has been through it all, including the way the justice system treats the severely mentally ill: at one point, she believed that she could save her roommate from the devil by pouring boiling water into her ear...      Susan interleaves Caroline's story with vignettes about her other friends, human stories that reveal their hopes, their circumstances, their personalities, their humanity. She's found that if she can hang in through the first ten to fifteen minutes of every coffee date with someone in the grip of psychosis, then true communication results. Their "madness" is not otherworldly: instead it tells us something about how they're surviving their lives and what they've been through. The Ghost Garden is not only touching, but carries a cargo of compassion and empathy.

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