Transforming Madness: New Lives for People Living with Mental Illness [Paperback]

Jay Neugeboren (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520228758 | ISBN-13: 978-0520228757 | Publication Date: May 7, 2001 | Edition: 1

In Imagining Robert, Jay Neugeboren told the sad, deeply personal, often harrowing story of one man and one family's struggle with chronic mental illness. Now, he presents an overview of the entire field: a clear-eyed, articulate, comprehensive survey of our mental health care system's shortcomings and of new, effective, proven approaches that make real differences in the lives of millions of Americans afflicted with severe mental illness. A book for general readers and professionals alike, Transforming Madness is at once a critique, a message of hope and recovery, and a call to action. Filled with dramatic stories, it shows us the many ways in which people who have suffered the long-term ravages of psychiatric disorders have reclaimed full and viable lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A quiet revolution is taking place in the care and treatment of the mentally ill, observes Neugeboren in this invaluable state-of-the-art report. Within the last five to 10 years, antipsychotic medications have become much more effective and their side effects less debilitating. Just as important, he notes, is the emergence of recovery programs, peer support centers and community treatment facilities that make it possible for the severely mentally ill to go to college, hold down jobs, marry and raise childrenAeven without being fully cured. There is a downside, though: general hospitals, now the primary providers of inpatient psychiatric care in the U.S., are as dreadful as they were a quarter-century ago, the author opines. In his moving 1997 memoir, Imagining Robert, Neugeboren, who is also a novelist (The Stolen Jew) and teaches at UMassAAmherst, discussed his brother's three decades of breakdowns and hospitalizations. This deep personal involvement with psychiatric illness propels the present book, an open-ended odyssey in which the author astutely probes a profession deeply divided between psychotherapeutic and pharmacological approaches. While acknowledging the value of drugs, Neugeboren makes a strong case for psychotherapy in the treatment of schizophrenia, other psychoses and mood disorders. Though the narrative at times feels padded, the searing profiles of people who have recovered and built new lives, often after having been pronounced medically hopeless, along with Neugeboren's selective evaluations of treatment programs, will make his journey enlightening to patients, their families and caregivers, as well as to general readers. Author tour. Agent, Richard Parks.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

"Drugs are not enough" might telegraph the message of this major survey of our mental health system, its virtues and sins, and its patients, therapists, and managers. Neugeboren, a novelist, guardian/biographer of his mentally ill brother (Imagining Robert, LJ 11/1/96), and teacher (Univ. of Massachusetts), brings out the possibilities for life afterAand withAserious mental illness. He tells the stories of many individuals who are living well despite terrible psychiatric histories, thanks to programs that include good psychotherapy and social support along with psychiatric medication. Unfortunately, many programs lack an essential human element, and the drive for pharmaceutical research to make psychosis medically curable just like other illnesses leaves psychotherapy, rehabilitation, and follow-up care in the shadows. Neugeboren provides a literate, lively guide, rich in history, biography, and economics as well as psychology and neurochemistry. This should be on the short list of books on mental health that can be called great. Recommended for all libraries.AE. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, DC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (May 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520228758
• ISBN-13: 978-0520228757
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profound message of hope, October 7, 1999

By 

Douglas Whynott ([e-mail]) (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Transforming Madness: New Lives For People Living With Mental Illness (Hardcover)

I was one of Jay Neugeboren's student in the graduate creative writing program at the University of Massachusetts, where for nearly 30 years he has helped develop many writers, such as Bret Lott, Susan Straight, Valerie Martin and others. For the greater part of his career Jay Neugeboren has been a novelist and short story writer whose work has appeared in hundreds of publications including the O'Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. During the past decade Neugeboren has turned to writing nonfiction about mental illness, first with "Imagining Robert" and most recently with "Transforming Madness." His purpose in "Imaging Robert" was to focus on his brother, who for most of his life has tragically and defiantly struggled with schizophrenia and who has at times lived in the most horrible of conditions in locked wards. "Imaging Robert" is also a memoir, a family story in which Neugeboren tells not only of his struggle to take care of Robert, but also deal with the guilt of his own success in light of his brother's continual suffering. In "Transforming Madness" Neugeboren moves a step further and shows the reader something he or she may not have thought possible-how people who have been chronically mentally ill have found ways to manage their illness lead successful lives. The effect of reading this remarkable book is to gain understanding and sympathy for those afflicted with mental illness, and to also experience the joy of watching happiness come to some of the unlikeliest people. Neugeboren shows us that in addition to therapy, support groups, and medications, it is the presence of hope that brings people from affliction and despair into productive living. As a result, "Transforming Madness" is a profound message of hope, and an act of caring that comes by way of long practice.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive Guide and Understanding Mental Health, April 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Transforming Madness: New Lives For People Living With Mental Illness (Hardcover)

The mental health system can be more confusing than mental illness. We have hundreds of thousand's of people in our mental health system. Most people have come in contact with someone who has been part of the mental health system. Yet, we don't understand mental health.

Jay has written a book about what is possible in mental health. Having a mental illness is not the end of the road. Mental illness is the beginning of a new life. We can understand and live with mental illness.

I am one of the people who Jay interviewed. I am honored to be part of this book. Jay spent time with people who are mentally ill and who are in our mental health system. Nobody has ever explained this system in such a clear way. Nobody has described the day to day bravery that those of us with mental illness have. Mental illness is very destructive and disorienting we can live with our psychiatric condtion. We do have mental health programs that work. We need to inform people of the possibilities of our mental health system. Thank you Jay for educating the public about the successes and possibilities of our quiet but profound revolution in mental health.

A system where people actually do get better rather than get worse

READ THIS BOOK

Moe Armstrong

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discovered I was mad, June 25, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Transforming Madness: New Lives for People Living with Mental Illness (Paperback)

Yes, this book was very helpful to me. I have been diagnosed as a schizophrenic, as well as with other various disorders, and life has been less than easy with my parents, teachers, co-workers, and even good friends, telling me I need to seek out counseling and medications. Why do these people want me to take a pill that could possibly kill me I kept asking myself. This book has helped me to understand a little more about why I was diagnosed with the various conditions, especially in regards to madness. I have been mad about everything! Anyway, I may not be fully recovered from all the madness I have experienced the last few years (from quitting smoking, my criminal record, and drug abuse), but reading a book about the subject of madness, discovering that perhaps madness has been why I have been diagnosed with such a problem as schizophrenia, that has been helpful. This book does offer some hope to those who have been deemed hopeless. Thank you Mr. Neugeboren!