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Biography & Autobiography.
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??The Lives They Left Behind is a deeply moving testament to the human side of mental illness, and of the narrow margin which so often separates the sane from the mad. It is a remarkable portrait, too, of the life of a psychiatric asylum??the sort of community in which, for better and for worse, hundreds of thousands of people lived out their lives. Darby Penney and Peter Stastny's careful historical (almost archaeological) and biographical reconstructions give us unique insight into these lives which would otherwise be lost and, indeed, unimaginable to the rest of us." ??Oliver Sacks ??Fascinating. . . . The haunting thing about the suitcase owners is that it's so easy to identify with them." ??Newsweek When Willard State Hospital closed its doors in 1995, after operating as one of New York State's largest mental institutions for over 120 years, a forgotten attic filled with suitcases belonging to former patients was discovered. Using the possessions found in these suitcases along with institutional records and doctors' notes from patient sessions, Darby Penney, a leading advocate of patients' rights, and Peter Stastny, a psychiatrist and documentary filmmaker, were able to reconstruct the lives of ten patients who resided at Willard during the first half of the twentieth century. The Lives They Left Behind tells their story. In addition to these human portraits, the book contains over 100 photographs as well as valuable historical background on how this state-funded institution operated. As it restores the humanity of the individuals it so poignantly evokes, The Lives They Left Behind reveals the vast historical inadequacies of a psychiatric system that has yet to he… (altro)
What an amazing story of the lives of 10 people who ended up in the Willard Asylum in Ovid, New York, which ran from 1869 to 1995. When the facility was closed in 1995, four hundred and twenty-seven suitcases were discovered in the attic. Researchers got permission to those suitcases and their medical records, as long as they agreed to change their names to protect the patient’s identities. In this book, the first names are real, but the last names are not.
I absolutely loved how the research and their stories were put together. The author gives you a brief, but very important, part of each patient’s life leading up to the day they were admitted into the asylum, along with a picture or two of that person. Most were immigrants from the 20’s and 30’s with high hopes of making it here in America. Their younger photos will break your heart; they were so young and beautiful with a full life ahead of them. Their stories will make you question every psychiatrist’s knowledge of what he ‘thinks’ he really knows about human life because they never even considered the history of any of the individuals. They had one word for just about every patient, every potential free worker of the state, “paranoid schizophrenia”. How scary it must have been to have someone you had a riff with turn you in to be checked out mentally, and then you find yourself locked into the system with no way out.
If you compare their stories with what you hear about on the news today, you would think half of America should be locked up or need some kind of psychiatric help.
I think I would have preferred more photos and folks profiled, but this one was touching and a way to connect with a concern that is still current. ( )
interesting read about the workings of a state mental hospital. Research was based on suitcases that were left abandoned in the attic of the hospital after it was closed. Only gave it 3 stars because it read more like a research paper or thesis than a novel which was what I had exoected. ( )
I don't buy the authors' premise that mental illness stems from trauma, or that these patients did not need medical care, but I enjoyed reading a bit about patient lives. I do wish the authors had not tried so hard to justify everything the patient's did as a normal reaction to life. ( )
Fascinating look at mental health care in the early to mid 20th Century. I found the narratives a bit jumbled; they seemed to jump in time and skip around. But that was a minor irritation, and overall I found this book riveting.
I believe most of the people profiled in this book might not even be given any mental health treatment today, and was struck by the number of individuals (probably 3 or 4 of the 10) who had sustained a head injury at some time prior to their mental health "breakdown."
I like to think we do a better job with mental health care now, but the authors' afterword paints a fairly grim picture of the current state of things. Many of the people who would have been institutionalized in mental health facilities in the past now end up in the prison system, apparently.
I was left feeling grief for the people in the book and their lost lives/lost potential. People pushed to the periphery of society because they didn't fit into established norms or because they fell on hard times, or had a particularly emotional period. It's there but for the grace of God that I go, and probably many others as well. ( )
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
This book is dedicated to the memories of the Willard suitcase owners, and to all others who have lived and died in mental institutions.
Incipit
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
The Sheltered Workshop Building stands alone on a hill overlooking Seneca Lake next to the empty lot that once held Chapin Hall, the massive central building of Willard State Hospital in New York. (Prologue)
The literature on the history o our country's treatment of people it considers mad basically consists of two types of book. (Foreword)
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Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
This process, which usually occurs outside the mental health system, can lead to a reconstruction of personal narratives in terms of healing and the possibility of a positive, self-determined future.
Biography & Autobiography.
History.
Psychology.
Nonfiction.
HTML:
??The Lives They Left Behind is a deeply moving testament to the human side of mental illness, and of the narrow margin which so often separates the sane from the mad. It is a remarkable portrait, too, of the life of a psychiatric asylum??the sort of community in which, for better and for worse, hundreds of thousands of people lived out their lives. Darby Penney and Peter Stastny's careful historical (almost archaeological) and biographical reconstructions give us unique insight into these lives which would otherwise be lost and, indeed, unimaginable to the rest of us." ??Oliver Sacks ??Fascinating. . . . The haunting thing about the suitcase owners is that it's so easy to identify with them." ??Newsweek When Willard State Hospital closed its doors in 1995, after operating as one of New York State's largest mental institutions for over 120 years, a forgotten attic filled with suitcases belonging to former patients was discovered. Using the possessions found in these suitcases along with institutional records and doctors' notes from patient sessions, Darby Penney, a leading advocate of patients' rights, and Peter Stastny, a psychiatrist and documentary filmmaker, were able to reconstruct the lives of ten patients who resided at Willard during the first half of the twentieth century. The Lives They Left Behind tells their story. In addition to these human portraits, the book contains over 100 photographs as well as valuable historical background on how this state-funded institution operated. As it restores the humanity of the individuals it so poignantly evokes, The Lives They Left Behind reveals the vast historical inadequacies of a psychiatric system that has yet to he
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(3.74)
1
I absolutely loved how the research and their stories were put together. The author gives you a brief, but very important, part of each patient’s life leading up to the day they were admitted into the asylum, along with a picture or two of that person. Most were immigrants from the 20’s and 30’s with high hopes of making it here in America. Their younger photos will break your heart; they were so young and beautiful with a full life ahead of them. Their stories will make you question every psychiatrist’s knowledge of what he ‘thinks’ he really knows about human life because they never even considered the history of any of the individuals. They had one word for just about every patient, every potential free worker of the state, “paranoid schizophrenia”. How scary it must have been to have someone you had a riff with turn you in to be checked out mentally, and then you find yourself locked into the system with no way out.
If you compare their stories with what you hear about on the news today, you would think half of America should be locked up or need some kind of psychiatric help.
The images in the book are online, along with a few extra photos:
http://www.suitcaseexhibit.org/index.php?section=about&subsection=suitcases (