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Is There No Place on Earth for Me?
 
 
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Is There No Place on Earth for Me? [Paperback]

Susan Sheehan (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 12, 1983
" A brilliantly documented chronicle of young woman's long struggle with schizophrenia."

-- Willard Gaylin, The New Republic

"Sylvia Frumkin," highly intelligent young girl, became a schizophrenic in her late teens and spent most of the next seventeen years in anti out of mental institutions. Susan Sheehan, a talented reporter followed "Sylvia" for almost a year talking with and observing her listening to her monologues, sitting in on consultations with doctors, even for a period sleeping in the bed next to her in a mental hospital.

"Susan Sheehan has committed an extraordinary act of journalism....She brings relentless intelligent attention to bear on a particular case, a journalistic practice that almost always results in new and disturbing insights into those mindless generalities and prejudice and certitudes we tend to carry around with us." -- Meg Greenfield, front page Washington Post Book World

"Sheehan is tenacious, observant and unsentimental. The history of a single patient leads us into a maze of understaffed institutions, bureaucratic fumbling, trial-and-error treatment and familial incomprehension. Though Sheehan keeps herself invisible, her sympathy is palpable."

-- Walter Clemons, Newsweek

By the author of Lift for Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair

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Is There No Place on Earth for Me? + An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness + A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health: Social Contexts, Theories, and Systems
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

" A brilliantly documented chronicle of young woman's long struggle with schizophrenia."

-- Willard Gaylin, The New Republic

"Sylvia Frumkin," highly intelligent young girl, became a schizophrenic in her late teens and spent most of the next seventeen years in anti out of mental institutions. Susan Sheehan, a talented reporter followed "Sylvia" for almost a year talking with and observing her listening to her monologues, sitting in on consultations with doctors, even for a period sleeping in the bed next to her in a mental hospital.

"Susan Sheehan has committed an extraordinary act of journalism....She brings relentless intelligent attention to bear on a particular case, a journalistic practice that almost always results in new and disturbing insights into those mindless generalities and prejudice and certitudes we tend to carry around with us." -- Meg Greenfield, front page Washington Post Book World

"Sheehan is tenacious, observant and unsentimental. The history of a single patient leads us into a maze of understaffed institutions, bureaucratic fumbling, trial-and-error treatment and familial incomprehension. Though Sheehan keeps herself invisible, her sympathy is palpable."

-- Walter Clemons, Newsweek

By the author of Lift for Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair

Product Details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; 1 edition (May 12, 1983)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0394713788
  • ISBN-13: 978-0394713786
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Look Inside the Mind of a Schizophrenic, December 5, 1999
By 
Patti None (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Is There No Place on Earth for Me? (Paperback)
"Is There No Place on Earth For Me" is a telling tale of the life of a Schizophrenic. Sheehan goes inside the mind of the character to explore the inner workings and provide detailed accounts of what life is like for someone suffering with Schizophrenia and the hell their life can become. Sheehan at one point, even slept in the bed next to her character in the mental institution. This act assures not only a detailed account, but also an accurate one. Sheehan reinforces the old saying...Don't knock Charlie till you walked a mile in his shoes! This book takes you through many miles in a Schizophrenics shoes. It extricates vivid details of the inner mind and its workings. This is a book you will never forget. After reading this story, you will never look at mental illness in the same light again.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good journalism, April 29, 2001
This review is from: Is There No Place on Earth for Me? (Paperback)
A Pulitzer Prize-winner for General Nonfiction, this is an account of the tragic life of one "Sylvia Frumkin" (a fictitious name), who succumbed to schizophrenia while still an adolescent and spent the next two decades in and out of mental hospitals.

The author (who lived with Frumkin for a time) never appears "on stage" in the book, and restricts herself to just-the-facts third-person narration. A certain moral outrage is evident nonetheless. The mental health industry does not come off well at all (Frumkin's institution is unfavorably compared to the one depicted in "One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest"). It's difficult not to come away with the impression that a little less bureaucratic negligence might have saved Miss Frumkin many wasted years. Fortunately, this is not a one-sided screed (not quite, anyhow): some of these medics and bureaucrats are just doing the best they can with the limited resources on hand.

The prose style is plain and straightforward--maybe a little flat-footed, too. But overall, the book is a good example of how facts can speak for themselves.

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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars MULTI FACETED, August 27, 2000
This review is from: Is There No Place on Earth for Me? (Paperback)
One way mental illness could be described is multi faceted. Like a prism, the mind refracts information (as a prism does light) into distorted processes during an active phase of psychosis. One can almost imagine the many facets of this illness as it is so individual; "Sylvia Frumkin's" chronic battle with psychosis is told with a touch of humor.

The author follows this actively psychotic woman for a 17 year time frame. Sylvia's first onset with the illness took place in 1964. Mentally distorted and confused, Sylvia's life is spent in and out of hospitals and treatment centers.

As devasting and tragic as mental illness is, the author injects notes of levity into some of Sylvia's more outlandish behavior. This softens the stark reality of Sylvia's illness and offers a lighter side to a very dark illness. It is hard not to smile when Sylvia declares herself to be Paul McCartney's wife. It is also hard not to smile when Sylvia explains in great detail why her delusions are justified and grounded. The incongruity of reality and Sylvia's delusions provide an almost light touch of ironic contrast. This tone is very effective in presenting Sylvia in a very humane and sympathetic light. It also helps readers (and hopefully others) feel affection for, and hope for the "Sylvias" who need a chance and people who genuinely care about them.

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Shortly after midnight on Friday, June 16, 1978, Sylvia Frumkin decided to take a bath. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
nurse management team, typing workshop, goo milligrams, therapy aide, zoo milligrams, insulin unit, seclusion room, seclusion order, hotel team, representative payee, hotel residents, night supervisor, chart room, voluntary patient
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miss Frumkin, Sylvia Frumkin, Transitional Services, New York, Irving Frumkin, Miss O'Reilly, Harriet Frumkin, Gould Farm, Fountain House, Joyce Frumkin, Day Center, Miss Baden, United States, Miss Fulton, Jamaica Center, Bergen Pines, Gracie Square, Benjamin Wilder, Queens Village, Weight Watchers, Barbara Herbert, New Jersey, Hermine Plotnick, Camilla Costello, Harriet Wilder
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