Madness in the Streets : How Psychiatry and the Law Abandoned the Mentally Ill (Paperback)

~ (Author), Virginia C. Armat (Author)

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.

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: Treatment Advocacy Center (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967993903
• ISBN-13: 978-0967993904
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #880,053 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Classic on the Failure of Deinstitutionalization, April 6, 2000

By	Bruce Rheinstein (Woodbridge, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Madness in the Streets: How Psychiatry and the Law Abandoned the Mentally Ill (Hardcover)

Even ten years after it was written, no other book documents the origins and failure of deinstitutionalization of people with severe mental illness so well. I only wish that the authors would update the book for the new decade.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A primer as to the reason we neglect the mentally ill, February 17, 1998

By	Carla Jacobs (Orange, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Madness in the Streets: How Psychiatry and the Law Abandoned the Mentally Ill (Paperback)

Public policy regarding mental illness has been shrouded by myth, ideology, and fanatiscism. Madness in the Steets explains the history and myths that have caused the criminalization and neglect of people with no-fault brain disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Those myths now exposed, it is a clarion for legislative change. A must read for sociologists, legislators, and those who understand the tragedy of lack of treatment.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Madness in the Streets should not be out of print!, May 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Madness in the Streets: How Psychiatry and the Law Abandoned the Mentally Ill (Paperback)

I am so disappointed that this book is out of print! I have been recommending it to everyone including political leaders. This book explains so well why our mental health system is failing! From the ACLU who allow our loved ones to "die with their rights on" to the anti-psychiatry movement who deny that mental illness exist.The authors have uncovered the web of a failed system which advocates need to have as a resource. This book needs to be available.