With vivid and sometimes horrifying detail, Gollaher describes the tireless determination of mental health crusader Dorothea Dix, as she traveled on her own throughout the country visiting jails, prisons, asylums, and almshouses in a heroic effort on behalf of the indigent insane. Photos.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
With single-minded determination, Dix (1802-1887), a New England school teacher, succeeded in drawing national attention to the appalling treatment of the mentally ill. In this exhaustive study, Gollaher, president of the California Health Care Institute, describes Dix's investigations of jails and almshouses where the mentally ill were cruelly imprisoned in filthy conditions. Her detailed reports of these visits, some dramatically embellished, resulted in the founding of state asylums. She also campaigned unsuccessfully to have federal land set aside for national facilities. With the onset of the Civil War, Dix was appointed Superintendent of Women Nurses for the Union. Although she did not want the country to break apart, Dix's compassion for the mentally ill, according to this portrait, apparently did not extend to everyone: she didn't believe slavery was wrong, and she held a deep prejudice against Roman Catholics. According to Gollaher, Dix identified with the helplessness of the mentally ill because of an abusive childhood, and her commitment resulted in important reforms. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Dix (1802-87) has long merited a full-scale biography. Advocating a public responsibility for the care of the mentally ill, she founded a large number of asylums and lobbied for mental health reforms. During the Civil War, she organized Union nurses, although she never gained the credit awarded Clara Barton and Mary Bickerdyke. Her career offers an instructive counterpoint to those of women abolitionists and advocates of women's rights; while she was active in politics, she never questioned traditional gender-defined roles in American society. Gollaher, president of the California Health Care Institute, weaves his knowledge of mental health care throughout the text, although here and there it is difficult to distinguish between historical analysis and policy advocacy. Nevertheless, readers will find his rediscovery of Dix a blend of compelling reading and evenhanded assessments, though the appeal of this book to lay readers is limited.?Brooks D. Simpson, Arizona State Univ., Tempe
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Gem of a Biography,
By Gaspare Tagliacozzi (Bologna, Italy) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (Hardcover)
I bought this book after reading the following award citation it received from the Organization of American Historians: "VOICE FOR THE MAD provides more than a fine analysis of how and why a key northern antebellum reformer came to her reform, more than a well-written, sophisticated account of how a well-traveled reformer sought progress in Europe and the Americas, more than an illuminating account of how and why Americans created asylums for the insane. Gollaher's study also throws important light on how a woman outside the home could be an important lobbyist inside antebellum male legislatures; on how and why antebellum religion generated a white-hot reformist passion; on how and why reformist passion often stopped short, as in Dix's case, of anti-slavery; and perhaps most astonishingly, on how and why the Yankee woman as a reforming fanatic could succeed in Southern legislatures...[A] gem of a biography." Amazingly, the book is even better than this, because it reveals how a person was able to use her own demons -- her anger, her feelings of abandonment, her incredible nervous energy -- as sources of strength in the public arena of politics.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely subtle, nuanced portrait of a woman on the edge,
By A Customer
This review is from: Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (Hardcover)
This is a great biography, if somewhat exhastive in its detailing of Dorothea Dix's incredibly energetic and productive life. What captivated me was Gollaher's ability to evoke Dix's essential sadness, something that went back to her early childhood and that made her self-aware yet remote from other people. Ironically it was her self-possession, her sense of being different from everyone else, that enabled her to related to the mentally ill and create a unique career.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great combination of history, psychology and biography.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (Hardcover)
We all learned about Dorothea Dix in school, that she was a great Victorian "humanitarian reformer." But this book, based on phenomenal research in her personal papers at Harvard, tells the inner story of her life, how she came to identify with the homeless mentally ill because she was often on thin psychological ice herself. The book, which won the 1996 Avery Craven Prize from the Organization of American Historians for the best book about the antebellum and Civil War period, also reveals a lot about the coming of the War, and about how Northerners like Dix viewed slavery, African Americans, and the South. One criticism: the copy editing was sloppy. Who at Simon and Schuster let so many typos and little mistakes go to press? Still, this is a terrific book, and a great read
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