Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness [Paperback]

Pete Earley (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 3, 2007

Former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley had written extensively about the criminal justice system. But it was only when his own son-in the throes of a manic episode-broke into a neighbor's house that he learned what happens to mentally ill people who break a law.

This is the Earley family's compelling story, a troubling look at bureaucratic apathy and the countless thousands who suffer confinement instead of care, brutal conditions instead of treatment, in the "revolving doors" between hospital and jail. With mass deinstitutionalization, large numbers of state mental patients are homeless or in jail-an experience little better than the horrors of a century ago. Earley takes us directly into that experience-and into that of a father and award-winning journalist trying to fight for a better way.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Suffering delusions from bipolar disorder, Mike Earley broke into a stranger's home to take a bubble bath and significantly damaged the premises. That Mike's act was viewed as a crime rather than a psychotic episode spurred his father, veteran journalist Pete Earley (Family of Spies), to investigate the "criminalization of the mentally ill." Earley gains access to the Miami-Dade County jail where guards admit that they routinely beat prisoners. He learns that Deidra Sanbourne, whose 1988 deinstitutionalization was a landmark civil rights case, died after being neglected in a boarding house. A public defender describes how he—not always happily—helps mentally ill clients avoid hospitalization. Throughout this grim work, Earley uneasily straddles the line between father and journalist. He compromises his objectivity when for most of his son's ordeal—Mike gets probation—he refuses to entertain the possibility that the terrified woman whose home Mike trashed also is a victim. And when, torn between opposing obligations, he decides not to reveal to a source's mother that her daughter has gone off her medications, he endangers the daughter's life and betrays her mother. Although this is mostly a sprawling retread of more significant work by psychologist Fuller Torrey and others, parents of the mentally ill should find solace and food for thought in its pages. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

[A] clarion call for change and justice, and an enthralling portrait of a father who refused to surrender. (Bebe Moore Campbell)

Takes readers on a harrowing personal journey... (Senator Pete V. Domenici [R-N.M.] and Nancy Domenici)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade; 1 edition (April 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425213897
• ISBN-13: 978-0425213896
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #60 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Parent & Adult Child

More About the Author

Pete Earley is a storyteller who has penned 13 books including the New York Times bestseller The Hot House and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness.

After a 14-year career in journalism, including six years at The Washington Post, Pete became a full-time author with a commitment to expose the stories that entertain and surprise.

His honest reporting and compelling writing helped him garner success as one of few authors with "the power to introduce new ideas and give them currency," according to Washingtonian magazine.

When Pete's life was turned upside down by the events recounted in his book Crazy, he joined the National Alliance of Mental Illness to advocate for strong mental health reform on the public stage.

This new advocacy has taken him to 46 different states and multiple countries around the globe where he delivers speeches to rally against the troubled mental health systems and for the mentally ill.

As an author, Pete has been on the receiving end of many accolades, including:

- 2007 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for General Nonfiction
- New York Times Bestseller for The Hot House
- Robert F. Kennedy Award for Social Justice
- Edgar Award Winner for Best Fact Crime Book

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

106 of 111 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes. It's all true... April 24, 2006

By whatnext

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

For anyone who has either "been there" himself or has watched a loved one descend into madness, this book will seem heartbreakingly familiar. But I fear that only the people who know and understand what Pete Earley and his son, Mike, have been through will buy and read this book. And it's not those people who need to understand just how "crazy" the treatment of the mentally ill in our country is in the 21st century. Until you've seen it from the inside, most people will have no idea that a parent has no power to help a sick child who happens to be 19 years old. That the person who is "crazy" is given the responsibility of making decisions about his care when he is as divorced from reality as he has ever been. That the only way of getting any sort of treatment is to first assault someone or try to kill onesself or another person. The average person has no idea of the hopeless, helpless position someone with a mental illness and their family are put in by the very people who we hope will HELP. As Mr. Earley points out in the book, who among us, particularly those in the medical profession, would walk by a person in pain, dying of cancer, without attempting to help? Who would send that person to jail to be locked up with murderers and rapists instead of to a hospital, where he would be given the medical treatment he needed? Who would suggest that no help could be given to him until he tried to kill himself or someone else? This is what happens to someone's son, daughter, mother, husband every day in this country. Mr. Earley has come to understand mental illness and the horrible state of care and treatment in the United States in a very personal and tragic way, as many, many of us have. He has graciously invited us to travel with him as he tries to understand how a First World country like ours could treat a beloved son as if he were a criminal, just because mental illness struck unexpectedly. mental illness is an uninvited guest. It is the cruelest of diseases. And it could happen to your son or daughter. It's then that you will completely understand where Pete Earley and Mike have been and are. Where so many hundreds of thousands of families are. Alone, without help from the medical profession, the legislatures, the law.

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Advocacy Tool for NAMI Members May 30, 2006

By Diana Kern

Format:Hardcover

In the book, "Crazy: A Father's Search through America's Mental Health Madness," Pete Earley tells a story that is all too familiar to NAMI members. As an award-winning journalist for over thirty years, Mr. Earley has effectively captured the absurdities of the mental health system in our country through his investigative journalism and his personal understanding of mental illness.

Mr. Earley's son, Mike, has a psychotic episode while in college and breaks into a stranger's home, takes a bubble bath and causes significant damage. Thus begins their long journey into the broken mental health system that so many of us confront everyday in this country. Mr. Earley learns all too quickly just how difficult it is to receive necessary treatment for his son's mental illness. He uses his frustration to launch a personal and professional inquiry into a confusing mental health system coupled with an irrational criminal justice system.

Mr. Earley is granted full access to the Miami-Dade County Jail's "forgotten floor"--the jail's primary psychiatric unit where prisoners are housed without treatment. He can see firsthand that, indeed, our jails and prisons have become the repository for persons with serious mental illness. The prisoners have committed both felonies and petty misdemeanors, all because of their untreated brain disorder. Yet there is no chance at rehabilitation in jails. The prisoners linger in their psychoses for months at a time, only to await a bus ride to a psychiatric facility where they receive minimal treatment in order to have a competency hearing and then are brought back to the jail to await a hearing that will probably never happen.

"Crazy" is a book that NAMI members can use as an advocacy tool to improve mental health care in their communities. When jails become a part of the continuum of care for persons with a serious mental illness, we must speak up and demand change.

Mr. Earley provides the history of deinstitutionalization and the changes in America's civil rights laws to give us a full perspective on why our mental health system is broken. As mental health advocates, it is important for us to know why our mental health system is so shattered. Knowing the history of mental health laws can teach us, not only why consumers cannot receive appropriate treatment for their mental illness, but also provide us with the information necessary to become effective advocates.

In the eight years that I have been involved with NAMI, I continually see how difficult it is for us to educate the uneducated about mental illness. As a person who has lived with schizoaffective disorder for over 20 years, I have a personal understanding of stigma. It is natural for me to talk about mental illness with my NAMI family. I am comfortable because I know that they understand and that I am not judged. It is quite another story to discuss my mental illness and subsequent suffering with those who are not aware of the unique issues that we confront on a daily basis. Yet, if we want positive changes in our mental health delivery system, we must be the ones to speak up and tell our stories. Yes, it can be difficult and often scary to disclose our personal experiences with mental illness. There is always that threat of stigma. This is why it is important to band together as NAMI advocates and show our force in numbers.

Mike Earley gave his father permission to use his name and his experiences in "Crazy" with the hope that his story would help someone else. This was a very brave step and I hope that it aids in Mike's recovery. I know that telling my story, my trials with my illness, the treatment that I did or did not receive, my endless search for the right medications, my experiences with mental health deputies (now known as CIT's) and all my entrances and exits into and out of mental hospitals, has been an integral part of the success of my recovery. I am a mental health advocate because I want others with a serious mental illness to have what I have now. I want consumers to know that they matter in this big world and with treatment they can live a fulfilling and meaningful life. I want consumers and their families to know that there is hope.

Mr. Earley concludes the book with a chapter titled, "Solutions". He stresses the necessity of CIT training in every community. CIT saves lives and changes attitudes. He asks us to rethink the closings of the state mental hospitals through his explanation of unintended consequences in the civil rights laws of persons with mental illness. He also asks us to reexamine commitment laws. "Eighty percent of persons with mental illness can be helped with antipsychotic medication, yet civil rights laws are used daily to prevent patients from getting help."

As a person with a serious psychotic disorder, I am glad that medication was forced on me and saved my life and continues to fix my broken brain.

Diana Kern

NAMI Texas

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very powerful April 24, 2006

By Dr. B

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a must read for anyone in the mental health profession, as I am. I think its critical for practitioners to be reminded every now and then about why we got into the profession in the first place, and most importantly what it feels like to be on the receiving end of our services. This book is an intensely personal work, aside from being a fine example of the muckraking tradition that is journalism at its best. I truly admire Mr. Eareley's willingness to tell his own story. Psychosis is not pretty, as any of us who have had a friend or loved one suffer with it know, and its very hard to watch someone loose their mind. The only thing worse would be to watch it happen to your precious child and be powerless to help. I highly recommend this book to parents, practitioners and most strongly to politicians.