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A sad read(aren‘t almost all the books I read, though?), but very educational. This book is even more relevant now than five years ago when it was released. Detailing the continuous failings of the world(though America is the focus) to care for some of the most vulnerable people, even I was a bit shocked. Powers ends on a (mostly) hopeful note, but sadly I believe since the writing of this we‘ve gone towards the opposite direction.

#bookishbingo #audiobookbingo #Challenge

So this book was very very good. It described a lot of harrowing details of mental health care. (Which didn't come as a shock really because my job and all but still) its just sad to hear the actual facts/figures to make these antidotes a reality. I am glad I read it but I hate that it had to be written.

#bookishbingo #AprilBingo #Challenge
#ChapterBreakBingo

I have heard a bunch of good things about this. And well its in my field of study so I had to get this one!

SO very good. I believe, for my mother, somewhere in the refracted light of a shattered psyche, a mother‘s love remains, but this book shed some light on our cultural attitudes toward schizophrenia.

Heartbreaking for sure. He gives a lot of information about so much relating to mental health issues. The history of asylums, psychiatry, psychiatry denouncers, the pharmaceutical industry, how drugs work in the brain. Plus he shares the story of each of his afflicted sons. I also learned that this country ends up spending more jailing those with mental illness than it would cost to treat our people, most of who are homeless. So very sad.

Hello Litsy!! I‘ve missed Litsy a lot so I am going to try to be better at posting. I find I come here when trying to decide on books and see what‘s up!
Recently finished this on audio and kindle. I enjoyed it overall but found the authors argument against autonomy for those who are suffering acute crisis very interesting. As a lawyer it‘s an interesting take on a long-standing legal concept. Overall a good read though!

"Unless that mad one is a gift of God made flesh." I'm already finding this book so sad. This part I found ironic, given how many of todays "Christians" treat the mentally ill.

In this book, the author combined two narration lines: the history of mental health in (mostly) America and the struggle of both of his sons with schizophrenic affective disorder. I would have liked this more, if he had decided to go one way or the other. I typically like when oral history is combined with facts, but here it didn‘t work for me. Nevertheless, this book is certainly no waste of time.

April‘s TBR. A mix of fantasy and mental health.

#bulletjournal

This combines historical analysis with family memoir to provide a very poignant personal take on severe mental illness. However, the recollections felt self-indulgent and self-congratulatory. I‘m wondering what this would have read like if written by the author‘s wife instead—or if her voice, and that of their surviving child, had been included more extensively. Still, a sad indictment of our lack of concern and (pun intended) commitment. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A fair share of bias in this book, but it was a great thought provoker. Learned quite a bit about the history or how we treat people with mental illness, policy making for taking care of those with mental illness, and what schizophrenia is and how it develops. The memoir portion of the book was intriguing and broke up the history/policy portion. Kudos to the author for attempting to take on this monstrous topic.

The writer's pain is apparent. In the preface he calls to the reader: "I hope you don't 'enjoy' this book. I hope you are wounded by it." There are heavy statistics and Western history of psychiatry/law, interspersed with his memoir (both Powers' boys were schizophrenics).

This is a difficult book to get through but I believe it's important. Time to throw down the stigma and learn as much as we can of the plights of others and fix the system.

Following the Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (signed by Kennedy) and the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act in 1972 (signed by Gov. Reagan) both constructed to unburden federal gov't and taxpayers, countless institutions closed and "crazy people" were forced out into the general population in the thousands where they were discriminated against and went without care, often ending up in jail- their cost of care again part of the federal budget. ?

Do neural links exist between creativity and mental illness?

Plato implied that insanity was one with artistic achievement. Modern neuroscience tends to agree... with many caveats in the way of definitive link.

One obstacle lies in pinning down exactly what creativity is. It's neurological origins and process are as amorphous as those of chronic madness itself. What are it's functions? Why would anyone even think to link it with mental illness?

"History is often whimsical when it is not brutal, and sometimes even when it is."

It should be noted that at the same time Hitler was gaining ground in Germany, calling for his master race, people like Teddy Roosevelt, the Carnegie and Rockefeller families, spurred by eugenics research by Francis Galton (cousin of Darwin) funded the American Eugenics Society in 1926, which called for the end of "social failures"/poor/mentally ill.

This book isn't perfect and there is of course inherent bias in the blending of memoir and historical accounting, but it is an important work to get conversations started about the treatment people with mental illness receive medically, bureacratically, and from society at large (noting their lack of political might is so necessary). I had to stop listening several times in order to digest this one...a hard road but definitely worth reading.

I had mixed feelings about this. The memoir portion is poignant and well done. The history of mental illness and its treatment in the US and Europe, while important, was a slog for me. I admit that I eventually started skimming those sections--partly because they are so unbelievably sad.

I was expecting this book to be about the history behind mental illness and how it is dealt with. Instead the book was an ode to the author's sons, both of whom have mental illnesses and one of whom took his own life. The author poorly uses sources and conjecture, and draws conclusions based on his own family and not the world at large. Good if you are looking for a portrait of a grieving father, not great for information or learning.

It was a ride with this one. I cried in the last few chapters, overwhelmed by the stories woven around the author's two sons and overwhelmed by the injustice. There were quite a few times I thought I would bail; self-indulgent asides, sarcasm, turns of phrase. I am not sure I liked the way in which, for the most part, it was a chapter of history with a chapter of memoir. But I'm glad I stuck it out. Pic of a passage I found problematic.

Back on the #sizzlinsummerbooks bandwagon with Day 11 - #drinkandbook - representing my (great) home state of Massachusetts with my beverage and slogging through this book. I'm not really in the mood for nonfiction but it's due this week so here we go!

The Golden State became the national leader in the practice, neutering twenty thousand mental patients between the onset [~1909] and 1979. It was not until September 2015 that the practice was prohibited in a bill signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, following revelations that the state cleansed the ovaries of 148 women between 2006 and 2010.

A vast and tragic gulf still separates scientific understanding from the incomprehension of people in general, including relatives of the afflicted, taxpayers, and the chainlink network of law enforcement, the courts, and jails. This mass public confusion has resulted in uncounted millions of wasted resources, much of it vaporized due to lost economic production but more of it expended on maintaining punitive institutions such as jails-

This book is so important.
Both of the author's sons were diagnosed with schizophrenia at a fairly young age. This book is part memoir, part historical account of mental health care in the last several centuries, and a critique of just how broken our current system of mental health care is in this country. As a mental health professional I greatly appreciate the lengths he went to research and detail the historical pieces of this book. (Con'd)👇🏽

Getting back into this book after completing the Bell Jar is mind-numbing: "I have sometimes imagined my own sanity as resting on the surface of a membrane, a thin and fragile membrane that can easily be ripped open, plunging me into the abyss of madness where I join the tumbling souls whose membranes have likewise been pierced over the ages. When we fall into such psychosis there are no other membranes below to catch and protect us."

I just cannot read this book anymore. Too desperately sad. Maybe I'll read it another time, but for now, it is too much.

I'm in a weird situation where my landlord is selling our building so I am showing my apartment even though we are not moving out of it 🙃. So while I wait for appointments to show up, I am starting this one up!

Next up.

This weekend's theme is ? (also good juxtaposition next to a subject so serious):

"This is the book I promised myself I would never write. And promised my wife as well. I have kept that promise for a decade-since our younger son, Keith, hanged himself in our basement, a week before his 21st birthday."

Such an important subject not just to educate oneself about but to pay attention to in our familial circles.

#riotgram #truestories

60 pages in, and this book already breaks my heart. My mentally ill peers were burned at the stake, beaten, and tortured hundreds of years ago, and society still fears us. I'm so lucky to live in an age where medications allow me to have a normal life. It still devastates me that we are subject to such stigma. Not a book to read if you aren't prepared to be sad and/or very angry.

After listening to this on audiobook, I have to recommend reading it on paper or e-reader. The author's voice is nasal and breathy. It's still interesting, though the author still inserts political opinions in many places.

Tagged book is my current read but this is my TBR ARC #shelfie for #riotgrams ... here's hoping participating in a photo challenge will force me to update my account...

Interesting blend of memoir and research. Educational and engaging so far.

In the preface, Powers says "I hope you don't enjoy this book, I hope you are wounded by it" . That covers my reaction. This is a much needed look at mental health in America. Powers' personal story about mental health weaves through this examination of the scientific, cultural, and historic aspects of MH care in the US. It brings home the personal impact of the facts and the figures and serves as a call to action. Continued in comments

Hi all! I'm currently working on a mental health article for Scaffolding Magazine. I'd love to talk with you about Stigmas surrounding mental health, treatment, and coping strategies. If you want to chat please email me at brainyheroine@gmail.com. Everything is confidential unless permission is given to use the conversation in my piece. (And yes, I'm reading the tagged book!)

I will never get tired of book mail. This is today's delivery. ❤️