The Insanity Offense and over 360,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
54 used & new from $11.99

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens
 
 
Start reading The Insanity Offense on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: violence risk assessment, individuals with severe psychiatric disorders, assisted outpatient treatment, United States, Herb Mullin, Bryan Stanley (more...)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

List Price: $24.95
Price: $16.47 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $8.48 (34%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Tuesday, November 10? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
36 new from $11.99 18 used from $12.37

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Kindle Edition $9.99 -- --
  Hardcover $16.47 $11.99 $12.37

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill by Mary Beth Pfeiffer

The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens + Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill
  • This item: The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens by E. Fuller Torrey

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill by Mary Beth Pfeiffer

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Out of the Shadows: Confronting America's Mental Illness Crisis

Out of the Shadows: Confronting America's Mental Illness Crisis

by E. Fuller Torrey
3.8 out of 5 stars (5)  $25.15
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients, and Providers

Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients, and Providers

by E. Fuller Torrey
4.5 out of 5 stars (50)  $10.79
Surviving Manic Depression: A Manual on Bipolar Disorder for Patients, Families, and Providers

Surviving Manic Depression: A Manual on Bipolar Disorder for Patients, Families, and Providers

by E. Fuller Torrey M.D.
4.5 out of 5 stars (26)  $15.30
Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and The Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and The Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

by Robert Whitaker
3.9 out of 5 stars (72)  $11.90
Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness

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

by Pete Earley
4.6 out of 5 stars (51)  $10.20
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The ill effects of not providing proper treatment for people with serious mental disorders has become all too apparent in recent years, writes research psychiatrist and treatment advocate Torrey (Surviving Manic-Depression). Released en masse from institutions beginning in the 1960s, the most severely ill are most likely to become homeless, incarcerated, victimized, and/or violent. Torrey details how civil liberties suits have prevented such people from being involuntarily institutionalized, leaving them a danger both to themselves and to others. Confronting these issues head on, Torrey offers both the clinical and the anecdotal, citing several tragic examples: in the case of Cho Seung-Hui, the 2007 Virginia Tech killer, he faults both the university and stringent state laws regarding involuntary commitment for neglecting to treat a clearly very ill young man. This reform-minded book calls for a change in laws affecting how mentally ill people are treated, keeping close track of those with a history of violent behavior and creating a more comprehensive treatment approach. Chilling and well documented, this text has many no-nonsense solutions to protect the mentally ill themselves as well as society as a whole. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

Research psychiatrist Torrey says that what began in the 1960s as an unlikely marriage between civil liberties advocates, who saw mandatory institutionalization of the mentally ill as a civil rights violation, and cost-conscious conservatives has resulted in a national catastrophe. That was when state governments decided they could save money by deinstitutionalizing mental patients, shuttering mental hospitals, and turning thousands of schizophrenics and manic-depressives out onto the streets. Ever since then, Torrey has been tallying instances in which severe mental illness has contributed to an escalating number of violent attacks, murders, and suicides and counting the number of severely mentally ill who are either homeless or incarcerated. Though he admits some of his numbers are estimates—most public officials like to pretend the mentally ill are invisible and thus fail to keep an accounting—they speak volumes about the dire need for public institutions equipped to help the severely mentally ill regain control over their destructive behaviors. His cry is loud and clear, but his solutions, alas, are necessarily complicated. --Donna Chavez

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; 1 edition (June 17, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393066584
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393066586
  • Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #250,148 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

E. Fuller Torrey
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's E. Fuller Torrey Page

Inside This Book (learn more)

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens
86% buy the item featured on this page:
The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens 4.0 out of 5 stars (10)
$16.47
Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill
5% buy
Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill 5.0 out of 5 stars (10)
$11.18
Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness
4% buy
Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness 4.6 out of 5 stars (51)
$10.20
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients, and Providers
3% buy
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients, and Providers 4.5 out of 5 stars (50)
$10.79

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Long ovedue and too nice..., June 23, 2008
This author is not kidding...he really tells it as it is, but with a light touch that may miss the mark. State legislators need to be slammed up side the head to get their attention and I fear he is a little too politically correct. As the father of a middle-aged bi-polar daughter, I was blindsided by the impact of her disease. She is one of the lucky ones who found a qualified psychiatrist and medications that are working to keep her off the streets, but barely. Unless you experience the family impact of mental illness most people just walk on by. The civil rights lawyers and courts who curtailed mandatory treatment are the real criminals in this crisis and the author is too easy on them. Mental illness still is a great social taboo in this culture of control and cure. When neither are possible our government seems paralized to respond. Unfortunately, I fear that it will take a lot more homeless people and mentally ill criminal behavior to get the needed attention and reforms. But, hey, never forget that a few highly dedicated people can change things. Meantime, you suffer and hope. Read this book and get involved.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Anyone who works in behavioral health should read this, August 30, 2008
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
I am a psychiatric social worker and have been in the field for years. I think anyone who works in behavioral health should read this book. It clearly explores the relationship between the "deinstitutionalization" of the 1950s and 1960s and the relationship as those in mental hospitals were set free to fend for themselves in the community. The relationship unfolkds as the author explains how the population decline in state mental hospitals has been off-set by the soaring number of mentally ill men and women who are wandering the streets homeless, or are locked away in jails and prisons with little to no treatment.

By now, 50 or so years on, it's obvious shutting down mental hospitals was not the solution -- rather, improving conditions and quality of life in the hospitals was what was needed. The author cites hundreds of specific cases in which institutionalized men and women are set free -- to become victims, or to victimize. The community mental health clinic concept works for a certain segment of the mentally ill population. But, as I have seen and experienced on an almost daily basis, there are far too many chronically mentally ill people who have no insight into their illness and the need to take medication consistently, and thus suffer in poverty, filth, and psychic ghettos in the inner cities of America.

The once-hospitalized men and women have achieved the "freedom" lawyers and psychiatrists a generation ago sought. Sadly, to quote from "Me and Bobby McGee" -- freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Those of you who work with the men and women who live in run-down housing, eat out of trash cans, are a revolving door in emergency rooms and jail cells will know what I talking about. This book paints a grave picture of the state of public behavioral health's state of the union in the early part of the 21st Century. It's not an easy book to read, but perhaps it will inspire a few people to push for some changes, because the system's broken and it needs fixing -- bad!
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars "The Insanity Offense" Review, April 8, 2009
I found the book "THe Insanity Offense" very interesting and informative
when it came to the historical facts of why so many of the mentally ill
were turned back into the community without adequate resources to rely on
during the Reagan years. Regarding alternative treatment of the mentally ill other then what conventional medicine has to offer I felt his
perspective was very lacking. His descriptive analysis of what the
concept of " treatment" was needed to be more informative. He did
reveal the fall out of what a happens to so many of the mentally ill
in an indifferent and callous society. He could have offered more
valid solutions to the problem or offered information of successful
projects or programs that have helped get the mentally ill off of
the streets and into alternative treatments.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars From wrong assumptions flow wrong conclusions
This week I watched a CSpan rerun (6/08) of a Washington Journal interview of Torrey and his book Insanity Offense. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sylvia Caras

5.0 out of 5 stars Torrey is dead-on, newspaper editor says
Picture a small county in Texas, 25,000 population, with only one special confinement cell and no specially trained sheriff's deputies. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Stephen J. Snyder

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Reading!
At least one-third of America's homeless persons are severely mentally ill, while another one-tenth the population of jails and prisons are as well. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Loyd E. Eskildson

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Gem from Dr. Torrey
Dr. Fuller Torrey provides us with another sane plea to help "the insane" - those whom society has abandoned to homelessness and jail rather than to the medical treatment they so... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Marvin Ross

1.0 out of 5 stars Offensive Insanity
If a really well known plumber wrote a book on making cakes, would you buy the book? Well, that's basically what Torrey has done -- written a book (actually several of them now)... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Robbie Jay

5.0 out of 5 stars Torrey,s Best Book
E. Fuller Torrey has been one of the most astute commentators on the deinstitutionalization charade for decades. This is his best book. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Hermes

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative
I knew nothing about Schizophrenia or the disaster well intended liberals and fiscal conservatives created when they released the mentally ill onto America's streets,before... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Frank Bartolomey

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Torrey is a liar 4 February 2009
See all discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
   



So You'd Like to...


Create a guide

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.