The Loony-Bin Trip [Paperback]

Kate Millett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2000

"The Loony-Bin Trip" is the powerful, staggeringly personal story of Kate Millett's struggle to regain control of her life after falling under an ascription of manic depression. Compulsively readable, Millett's journey into 'that other region' traverses a fearful terrain of self-doubt, futility, and alienation. Beginning with the summer at her farm in Poughkeepsie, New York, when she decides to prove her sanity by going off the lithium prescribed to combat depression, Millett courses through a season of doubt about her own sanity and the loyalty of the people around her. Tormented by the fear that her own mind is 'too dangerous' to be left to its own devices, haunted by recollections of two brief, involuntary commitments to mental hospitals - the first by a doctor who mockingly commented, 'Your only mistake was in trusting the people who brought you here' - she becomes increasingly terrified of being 'captured' again. Millett's nightmares come true when she is forcibly confined to a mental hospital while traveling in Ireland. 'I am telling you what happened to me', Kate Millett says, 'in the hope that it may help all those who have been or are about to be in the same boat'. Her story illuminates not only the personal but also the social conditions - the 'general superstition' - of mental illness. A new preface comments on recent movements for patients' rights and notes touchstone books that have begun to tread the still-taboo ground of psychiatric confinement.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although long since diagnosed as manic depressive, Millett ( Sexual Politics ) in 1980 determined to discontinue her lithium medication. Prolix and digressive, fractured and brave, this memoir tracks the radical feminist's degenerative mental state. At her farm in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., her mania alienates her lover and sows discontent in the fledgling lesbian artists colony that resides there. Alongside radiant descriptions of physical labor in a natural environment are the squabbles of the artists and Millet's rhapsody on genitals--a horse's, which she fondles, and her father's--plus journal excerpts of one of the disillusioned artists. Her relatives and friends fail in attempts to commit her to a Manhattan institution; they succeed in Ireland for a time. The book masterfully conjures the ecstasy of mania, the despair of depression, and the anguish and shame of a hunted, paranoid, impotent person who is mentally ill. But Millett's identification with Joan of Arc and Irish political prisoners is unconvincing, as is her indictment of what she sees as the collusion of the mental health establishment and family in abrogating the civil rights of the mentally ill.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Not since Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has the literature of madness emitted such a powerful anti-institutional cry." -- Washington Post ADVANCE PRAISE "The forced incarceration, the mental anguish, and the sheer humiliation of 'going mad' are made real in Millett's detailed and passionate narrative of her own experiences. This is a brave book. Once again, the pioneer of women's liberation in our century makes us consider the nature of freedom--what it is and who has a right to it." -- Andrea Dworkin, author of Letters from a War Zone "[Millett] takes you inside her mind in a way that no psychiatrist has ever done, and what you see there is not a mad woman, but another person, just like you, only a little bit more talented, and very, very sane (but damned mad). It is a magic book." -- Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of The Assault on Truth "Kate Millett is magnificent: a historical figure in her own lifetime, a truly exciting writer, a chronicler of our times... [Her] critique of institutional psychiatry and our well-meaning collusion with it is devastating and true... Millett's spirit is indomitable, her bravery thrilling, her return long awaited." -- Phyllis Chesler, author of Women and Madness

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (August 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252068882
• ISBN-13: 978-0252068881
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #977,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating but wordy and pretentious, March 19, 2002

By 

Marino J. Martinez "John Martinez" (Albuquerque, NH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Loony-Bin Trip (Paperback)

I read this book primarily for some insights into the excesses of psychiatry, and found much of that. I was quite surprised how strongly I identified with some of her feelings. Though I have have never had problems of the sort Kate had (has?), I am one of the many who have experienced clinical depression and been treated for it. As I read her book, I noticed how even this minor problem carries a lifetime of suspicion from others. As I go through life, physicians and relatives are quite ready and willing to jump on ordinary feelings as "evidence" that it is happening again, and maybe there is more to it. How oddly must one behave to start the spiral down to the point of something like Kate's experience happening?

Though I felt that Kate really should have known better than to do some of what she did, knowing that others were likely to use them excuses to have her committed, I still felt deeply her fear and helplessness. I was especially disgusted by the attitude of the shrink who failed to get her hauled away in the Bowry only through Kate's quick thinking.

The minuses of this book for me were the many times the she goes into descriptions of artists and other creative types in such exalted terms. Kate left little doubt that, to her, anyone who does other things with their lives are empty shells who rely on the chosen ones (such as herself) to be able to see the world as it truly is. This sort of elitism (how many times does she tell us she is a professor and published writer) and condescension is sickening in someone who spends so much of her life trying to right great wrongs of society.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great book I disagreed with, November 14, 2004

By 

Twilly - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Loony-Bin Trip (Paperback)

As a person with manic depression, I can identify with some of the things Kate Millett had to say. However, I found her attitude about mental illness rather annoying. In this book, it is clear that she finds a diagnosis of manic depression infuriating and shameful. She finds lithium, a drug that has saved countless lives, to be nothing short of political oppression. She ends by saying that the illness does not really exist.

I cut Millett some slack because the book was written in the 80s and our society had not yet crossed over from Freudian thinking into brain science (we are still making that journey). I'm wondering if she has changed her mind at all in the years since the publication of the book. I, myself, am not ashamed or infuriated by my diagnosis in the way Millett was. I insist on my right to proper treatment, where she felt wronged by the notion of treatment at all.

While I did not agree with most of what Millett had to say, this book is captivating. She is clearly a brilliant woman and a fantastic writer.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe it's the place I'm in, September 24, 2002

By 

cactus writer (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Loony-Bin Trip (Paperback)

Millet carefully unpacks the historical events surrounding her "breakdowns." Her family and many friends think she is crazy to buy a farm and turn it into an artist's retreat. As readers, it's hard to know whether she did or didn't have a breakdown. However, regardless of whether it even can be determined in such a black-and-white manner, we feel an incredible empathy for her as she welcomes us to experience her hurt, her feelings of jealousy and loss, and her moments of profound joy. For anyone who has ever been diagnosed with a mental "disorder," this is a wonderfully affirming book.