Finally back in print! Mandatory reading for anyone who asks why thousands of individuals who clearly suffer from brain disease go without care. The Treatment Advocacy Center is proud to republish this book so that this valuable tool for reform continues to remain available to them and to all who ask "How can we stop this neglect?"
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Taking aim at advocacy groups who view the homeless as ordinary people down on their luck, the authors of this scorching critique cite findings that 30% to 40% of the homeless suffer from major mental illness, and that a high proportion are substance abusers. Isaac, a sociologist, and freelance journalist Armat, blame the abandonment of the homeless mentally ill on the anti-psychiatry movement (led by Thomas Szasz, Ronald Laing, among others), on civil libertarians and on psychiatrists who foster the "delusion that preventive community psychiatry could eliminate mental illness." Arguing that we have replaced the mental hospital with the 18th-century poorhouse which threw together the mentally ill, the retarded, criminals and the displaced, they warn that a humane system of care will be costly and might involve treatment of some mentally ill persons against their will. Their support for judicious use of electroshock therapy will also stir controversy.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Isaac and Armat, a sociologist and a journalist, respectively, look retrospectively at the causes behind the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in the 1970s--a phenomena they abhor. Their solution to this monstrous error is to combine community services with active psychiatric treatment. Chapters expose how the "madness myth" started with anti-psychiatry proponents R.D. Laing and Thomas Szasz, ex-patient groups, and radical psychiatrists like Jeffrey Masson. The authors also lambast lawyers who eliminated involuntary commitment and sued hospitals and doctors for failure to treat. But perhaps the most riveting portion of this well-researched, disturbing, and lucid expository is the devastation wreaked on families by untreated relatives afflicted with mental illness. A good companion to Ann Braden Johnson's Out of Bedlam ( LJ 9/1/90). Recommended for larger collections.
- Janice Arenofsky, formerly with Arizona State Lib., Phoenix
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Janice Arenofsky, formerly with Arizona State Lib., Phoenix
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
So often we forget the plight of the severely mentally ill, even though we are in the mental health profession. But then again, that probably is the problem. We work with those who are already mentally healthy, or at least almost. Like the world, we enjoy working with college students or high-functioning adults who are good conversationalists. The severely mentally ill are relegated to the streets.
Isaac and Armat hit us with our own neglect. The severely mentally ill compose between one-third and one-half of the homeless population. Why? The authors blame the anti-psychiatry movement, specifically R. D. Laing, Thomas Szasz, and the ex-patient movement. Government, and the rest of our culture, has been heavily influenced by their philosophy and political rhetoric, while ignoring the scientific evidence and humanitarian compassion. Irving Goffman and others joined forces to defame state hospitals, and then to defund them. Community mental health centers were to replace them, but as Torrey points out in his Nowhere to Go, the CMHs almost exclusively treat the non-severely mentally ill.
There is much rhetoric about preventing mental illness, but the trouble is that no one really knows how to prevent it, since science really hasn't determined its source. Instead, the federal and state governments pour their resources into programs designed to treat the severely mentally ill, but don't actually provide such treatment.
The stories of broken families, suicides, and people thrown out on the street break your heart. Families are caught between a rock and a hard place. Patients are allowed to refuse treatment even though their minds are "ill," while family members watch their loved ones destroy themselves or be raped or killed on the street. "The effect was to deprive many of life in the name of liberty" (p. 127). If you work with the severely mentally ill, this book is a must. Historians of psychology will find their discussion of the roots of anti-psychiatry, the ex-patient movement, and the rise of the mental health bar highly informative. And clinical psychologists or psychiatrists will find their discussion about the effectiveness of psychosurgery, ECT, and psychoactive drugs not only informative and well-documented, but stimulating (electifying? shocking?). In contrast to most of the psychological and psychiatric community, the authors endorse all three modes of treatment!
In their analysis, Isaac and Armat demonstrate that the science of clinical psychology is so clouded with rhetoric on all sides of every treatment issue, it is often difficult to discern the truth. Consequently, insurance companies and the helping professions become political conservatives, not wanting to make waves and wanting to appear socially and politically correct, rather than acting in the best interest of the severely mentally ill.
Isaac and Armat don't merely criticize the present system. Almost a quarter of their book outlines practical guidelines to help the severely mentally ill. They encourage voluntary community programs, and give several examples. Yet they point out the necessity of state hospitals and involuntary treatment backed up through the courts. In sum, if you are concerned about the homeless and you are in the mental health profession, this book is a definite must.
Isaac and Armat hit us with our own neglect. The severely mentally ill compose between one-third and one-half of the homeless population. Why? The authors blame the anti-psychiatry movement, specifically R. D. Laing, Thomas Szasz, and the ex-patient movement. Government, and the rest of our culture, has been heavily influenced by their philosophy and political rhetoric, while ignoring the scientific evidence and humanitarian compassion. Irving Goffman and others joined forces to defame state hospitals, and then to defund them. Community mental health centers were to replace them, but as Torrey points out in his Nowhere to Go, the CMHs almost exclusively treat the non-severely mentally ill.
There is much rhetoric about preventing mental illness, but the trouble is that no one really knows how to prevent it, since science really hasn't determined its source. Instead, the federal and state governments pour their resources into programs designed to treat the severely mentally ill, but don't actually provide such treatment.
The stories of broken families, suicides, and people thrown out on the street break your heart. Families are caught between a rock and a hard place. Patients are allowed to refuse treatment even though their minds are "ill," while family members watch their loved ones destroy themselves or be raped or killed on the street. "The effect was to deprive many of life in the name of liberty" (p. 127). If you work with the severely mentally ill, this book is a must. Historians of psychology will find their discussion of the roots of anti-psychiatry, the ex-patient movement, and the rise of the mental health bar highly informative. And clinical psychologists or psychiatrists will find their discussion about the effectiveness of psychosurgery, ECT, and psychoactive drugs not only informative and well-documented, but stimulating (electifying? shocking?). In contrast to most of the psychological and psychiatric community, the authors endorse all three modes of treatment!
In their analysis, Isaac and Armat demonstrate that the science of clinical psychology is so clouded with rhetoric on all sides of every treatment issue, it is often difficult to discern the truth. Consequently, insurance companies and the helping professions become political conservatives, not wanting to make waves and wanting to appear socially and politically correct, rather than acting in the best interest of the severely mentally ill.
Isaac and Armat don't merely criticize the present system. Almost a quarter of their book outlines practical guidelines to help the severely mentally ill. They encourage voluntary community programs, and give several examples. Yet they point out the necessity of state hospitals and involuntary treatment backed up through the courts. In sum, if you are concerned about the homeless and you are in the mental health profession, this book is a definite must.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Suppresst
Format:Paperback
If you accept the notion that insanity is an illness (in contast to the whacked-out anti-psychiatry crowd) then this is an outstanding history of how America's treatment of the mentally ill has been made into a disgrace by the very ilk (counterculture/New Left types) who cry the loudest and hardest about social injustice in America. Christ warned about certain men who tie heavy loads on other mens backs, but won't lift a finger to help them; well, the anti-psychiatry crowd has made it virtually impossible for concerned, compassionate Americans to help the people who need it most. One can only take comfort in the notion that at the Final Judgment the people responsible for bringing about such mind-boggling suffering will be certainly be held accountable.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Julia Acuna
Format:Paperback
I read this book and could not put it down. It really explains how our mental health policy in America became so distorted. The abandonment of our mentally ill in the name of freedom and self determination was ill thought out. This book is thorough and riveting.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Have we learned anything in the past fifty years?
For those of us who have lived these fifty years loving and caring for a family member with mental illness this story seems like reading our family diary. Read more
Published 2 months ago by JANE C. WINN
5.0 out of 5 stars
The BEST way to buy books.
New. Hardcover. Half the price of the 5-day shipping charge. Delivered 3 days prior to when it was promised without damage. What's not to like! Read more
Published on December 23, 2009 by David A. Whitten
1.0 out of 5 stars
PSYCHIATRY AND POLITICAL OPPRESSION
This is a very dangerous book. It is not what its title suggests-- it is not about the reduction of funding for mental health services, a legitimate matter for concern. Read more
Published on August 11, 2008 by Cheri Montagu
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